Caroline
by IWillBelieveIt
Summary: Caroline Morgan, mostly, has put what happened when she was kidnapped with V95 behind her. But when she's recruited to MI9, she finds herself sucked into a battle of good against evil, where's not sure who she should trust. Sequel to Doppelganger. OC/OC OC/OC Dan/Zoe
1. Chapter 1

**Hey, guys! This is _Caroline_ (I know it took forever, I'm sorry. Truly, I am) and it'll be told mainly from Dan and Caroline's perpectives, although it will go to some of the other characters' in later chapters. I'll make sure to put the name of who's POV it is at the top of each chapter, just so you know. **

* * *

Biting my lip against the pain, I ran into the park, unknowingly backing myself into a corner until it was too late. Glancing around wildly, I looked around desperately for an escape route that refused to emerge.

Terrified, I raised my eyes to look at the two guys. They both appeared to be in their mid to late twenties, wearing black and were heavily built. There was no getting away from them now.

"What do you want with me?" I whimpered, shifting my weight to my good foot.

"You must come with us to find that out." The guy on the right said.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." I said.

"Very well." The other guy said. Before I could even move, he lunged forward and smashed something into the side of my head, and immediately my world was enveloped in darkness.

* * *

I groaned as I slowly woke, fighting against the pounding pain in the side of my head.

"Caroline Morgan." A voice said. It was male, and young – not as young as me, probably in his early twenties. It was dark, but I could see that he was tall and had blonde curly hair that had been cropped short.

I glared up at the figure and tried to get up, finding that my wrists were bound behind my back. "How the _hell _do you know my name?"

The man smiled. "MI9 have been watching you for some time, Miss Morgan."

"MI . . . You've got be _joking_." I said, rolling my eyes.

"I am not." The man said. "You impressed my superiors when you, along with your brother and Miss London, were held hostage by V95."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. V95 had poisoned herself, which in turn had poisoned Zoe. Dan had been taken to keep Zoe from trying anything and I had been taken simply to keep Dan in line, although with the condition that Zoe was in, he would have willingly allowed V95 to kill him, if it meant that V95 would spare mine and Zoe's lives. I hadn't actually done anything, apart from making sure I didn't go completely insane.

"Ever since then, MI9 have been keeping a close eye on you, Caroline."

"And why would they do that?" I asked. "To see if the nightmares aren't keeping me up all night? Well, I haven't had nightmares since I was a kid, so if you could let me go, that'd be great – "

"You're not here so we can check on you, Caroline. If we wanted to do that, we'd just ask Dan."

Yeah, if you could get him to stop making out with Zoe for five seconds. "So what's the point of having your goons chase after me and abduct me in a local park?"

"Because we wanted to see whether or not you had potential."

Frustrated, I hissed through my teeth. We were going around in circles and my patience was wearing thin. Jesus Christ, just _get to the point._

"The potential to be an agent." The man said, just as the lights went up and I found myself staring around me in awe.

"My name is Oscar Cole." The man said. "Welcome to MI High."

I gaped at him as he twisted his head to look behind him and said, "Come on out, guys. Come meet your new teammate."

"Is she hot?" I heard a male voice ask.

"Uh . . . um, could you untie me maybe?" I asked Oscar as three figures stepped out of the shadows. Oscar nodded and knelt down behind me, his fingers quickly untying the ropes around my wrists. I sighed in relief, rubbing my sore wrists as I finally saw the features of the three figures. I noticed that they all were roughly my age and there were two guys and one girl.

"Hi!" The girl chirped. "I'm Vanessa." I noticed that, like me, Vanessa was short, but unlike me, she had long, dark brown hair and matching brown eyes that sparkled with mischief. She had delicate features and golden, sun-browned skin and when she spoke, she had an odd accent. It took me a moment to place it.

"You're Australian?" I asked, grinning. I'd always had a fascination with Australia.

Vanessa grinned. "You noticed? Most people just say I talk funny. Yeah, I'm on loan to MI9 from the ASIO."

"What's the ASIO?" I asked, my brow furrowing in confusion.

"Australian Security Intelligence Offices." Oscar replied. "The Australian Secret Service."

The two guys laughed and I turned to look at the guy on Vanessa's right. He was tall, only a little shorter than Dan. He had unruly dark brown hair, a mass of unkempt brown curls. His eyes were the same shade as the ocean. I could have sworn that he and Vanessa were brother and sister, until he spoke and displayed a deep voice, laced with a similar accent to my own. It made his voice sound softer, gentler. "I'm Camden. Camden Aurgur."

He smiled lazily at me and I crossed my arms over my chest, fixing him with an unamused look. "So you're the flirt, are you?"

Camden grinned. "You're smart."

I raised my eyebrows. "Surprised, are you?"

Camden didn't answer and I rolled my eyes, turning to the second boy. I noticed that he was tall – taller than Camden, taller than Dan. He had soft brown hair that he wore cut short and fathomless dark brown eyes and paired with his strong jaw and nose and full lips, it was hard to deny that he was gorgeous.

"I'm Caroline." I said to him.

"We know." Vanessa said with a grin. "Ainsworth's been excited about you coming for roughly a month – Caroline Morgan, the twin sister of the legendary Daniel Morgan."

I looked towards the taller boy – Ainsworth – and smiled. "Ainsworth? You've met my brother?"

"First, don't call me Ainsworth. That name has been in my family for three generations. Just call me James."

"James?" I asked.

Ainsworth grinned. "It's my middle name. It's much more modern than . . . _Ainsworth_."

I giggled. He said it as if the name burned in his mouth. "Why don't you use Ains?"

He grinned again. "Maybe I will."

"So what's your specialities?" I asked, glancing between Ains, Vanessa and Camden.

"You're all pretty well-rounded." Oscar said. "But Ains is a hacker, Camden's a master of disguise and can speak seven languages and Vanessa's a fighter."

"Then what does that make me?" I asked. "The back-up?"

Ains grinned. "Nice to know you're modest. I've seen the CCTV footage of you running from those MI9 agents. You, Miss Caroline Morgan, are our parkour expert."

* * *

**Thankyou to those of you who gave me OC's - it really helped! I'll post a picture on my Twitter account ( IWillBelieveIt) to show you what Caroline, Ainsworth, Camden and Vanessa look like. I'm sure you can imagine what Oscar would look like. If you guys could review, I'd love it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**SIX WEEKS LATER**

**Caroline**

"Dan?" I shouted, struggling to pull my suitcase up the stairs. "Can you give me a hand please?"

Suddenly Dan appeared and took my suitcase, easily hauling it up the stairs to my bedroom. I watched his back as I followed him, noticing that he almost trudged up the stairs. I wondered if he'd gotten into a fight with Zoe. Ever since V95, they hadn't been exactly the same around each other – Zoe had become slightly irritable and short-tempered.

As Dan pushed the door to my bedroom open with his shoulder and dumped my bag in the middle of the room before he turned to face me. "How was your camp, Care?"

Instead of answering, I studied him, taking in the agony he was hiding behind those blue eyes, which were exact replicas of my own. "What's happened, Dan? Did you and Zoe have another fight?"

"It's none of your business, Caroline." Dan replied, trying to push past me, but I held my arm out to block him and pushed against his chest. Dan made a hissing sound through his teeth as he walked back a few steps, but he sighed heavily and sat down on my bed. I watched as he reached up and ran a hand through his blonde hair, leaving parts of it sticking up. He didn't say anything for a long time and . . . his silence scared me. I'd never seen him like this. Even though we were technically twins, only a few minutes separating us, Dan was always the older one. He was born first and he was the protector. He'd held me when lightning storms scared me. He'd brushed my tears away when I'd had my first breakup and only half-jokingly told me that he would find a shotgun from somewhere and shoot the guy's kneecaps out. He was the one who'd somehow managed to keep both his sister and his girlfriend safe when all the odds were against us.

"Zoe's leaving." Dan finally managed to choke out. "She found out she has family scattered – "

He broke off as I pulled my MI9 ID, practically shoving it in his face. Dan squinted to read the writing on it, but he sighed almost in relief.

"Her 86 sisters." I said. "Or should I say, fellow _clones._"

"Wha – "

"That '_camp_' I've been on for the past six weeks? It was an _MI9 _training camp."

"So you know then." Dan said quietly. "You know about her sisters, you know about the clones, you know . . . You know what KORPS did to her."

I nodded sadly. "I'm sorry, Dan."

"I knew . . ." Dan said softly. "I knew, when we first started dating that in the end, I would get hurt. I _knew _that. But I still did it because I love her. And then after everything with V95, I thought that was it. I thought we'd be fine again. But now . . ." He scrubbed furiously at his eyes, obviously hoping that it would disguise the tears sparkling in them, before he looked up at me again. "I don't want her to go, Care."

He sounded so small, so vulnerable, that I couldn't help it – I moved forward and hugged him the way he'd held me when we were much younger and I was much smaller and more terrified – tight, as if I was afraid that he would fall apart if I let go. From the way he was shaking, it wouldn't have surprised me.

"Oh, Danny." I said softly, rubbing his back gently.

"I love her, Care." Dan whimpered.

"I know." I told him. "It'll be okay eventually, Dan. I promise."

* * *

**Dan**

A few hours later, I managed to pull myself together and throw on some warmer clothes which consisted of jeans, a black t-shirt, a red hoodie and a pair of shoes – I didn't even bother checking what ones I'd thrown on. Then I walked into Caroline's room, where she pressed pause on the remote to her DVD player and looked up at me expectantly. I looked at the screen, where a man with a bald head, scars and strange tattoos was frozen in place. Amused, I turned to Caroline. "Seriously? _Beastly_, again?"

"What's wrong with _Beastly_? I mean, seriously, that Kyle is _fit_."

"Not right there he's not."

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Fine. Alex Pettyfer is – "

"I do not want to hear about how hot you believe a guy you will never meet is." I said. "I'm heading out."

"Going to see Zoe?" Caroline asked, blue eyes swimming with worry.

"She doesn't want to say goodbye to me." I said, shoving my hands deep into my pockets. "She doesn't get a say in whether I say goodbye to her."

"Dan – "

"I'll be fine, Care." I told her. I took in her worried blue eyes and sighed loudly. "Honest. Look, we'll talk about it when I get back, okay?"

"Fine." Caroline agreed, knowing that was the closest she was going to get. "Do you know how long you'll be?"

"Being me and Zo? I honestly have no idea." I told her. Noticing the knowing glint in her eyes, I rolled my eyes and made a small exasperated noise. "That's not what I meant."

"Of course not." Caroline said sarcastically. "A teenage guy wanting to get laid is an absolutely ridiculous idea . . ."

Irritated, I said, "Just because I'm not going over there to have sex, it doesn't mean I don't think about it."

Caroline smirked and I rolled my eyes. "I am not . . . I am not having this conversation with you now. Or _ever_, for that matter."

"Whatever. Just make sure you use protection." Caroline said, resuming her movie.

"If Mum and dad show up while I'm gone – "

"Tell them you're at Tom's. yeah, yeah, I know." Caroline said.


	3. Chapter 3

I jumped up and grabbed one of the lower branches of the tree, easily swinging myself up and onto it. Using the side of the house as leverage, I then pulled myself up onto the next highest branch within my reach, which now brought me level with Zoe's window, I moved carefully along the branch. I pressed my palm against the window as a peered in, taking in the auburn hair cascading down Zoe's back, the half-packed bag sitting on her bed. My breath caught and my heart started thumping in my chest as I took her in, all too aware of the knowledge that this might be the last I got to see her for a very long time. Eyeing the baseball bat she kept in the corner of her room warily, I eased the window open and jumped in, making sure there was no mud of my shoes.

Before I could even say two words, Zoe had grabbed the baseball bat and swung it at my head. I ducked and grabbed her arm, pulling the baseball from her grasp and pinning her arms behind her back.

Zoe stared at me, her arms loosening in my grip. As I released her, she said, "Dan? I could have killed you. I could have – "

"But you didn't." I interrupted, pushing her hair out of her eyes.

"You shouldn't be here." Zoe said abruptly, pushing past me to the suitcase sitting on her bed. "You need to go."

"I needed to see you before you left." I said lamely. It was such a stupid thing to say, but as stupid as it was, it was the truth.

"Okay, well, now you've seen me. You know where the door is. Or the window, if you'd prefer." Zoe said, still avoiding eye contact with me as she gestured towards the still open window.

"Can you tell _what _your problem is, exactly? I mean, seriously, Zoe, I can cope with the fact that you're going to go find your sisters. What I can't handle is _this_. After everything we've been through, you're just shutting me out."

"You won't understand." Zoe said, still avoiding eye contact with me. I made a frustrated noise deep in the back of my throat and grabbed her wrist, spinning her around to face me. Zoe's eyes widened and her lips parted as she took in my expression and she took a step back, but the back of her knee collided with the bed.

"Why, Zoe?" I asked softly, my fingers releasing her wrist slowly.

Suddenly Zoe was blinking away tears as she sat down the bed and whimpered, "Because it hurts too much, Dan. It hurts too much to leave you, so I figured that if I can at least save one of us some pain, then . . ."

"But that doesn't make any sense."

"When did _we _ever make sense, Dan?" Zoe asked, getting up. "You're the boy who never trusts _anyone _and I'm the girl from SKUL, the clone of the enemy, for God's sake!"

With each word, she took a step towards me and I took a step back, until my back collided with the wall on the other side of the room.

"Yeah, but there's one thing that overrides all of that." I said, caressing her cheek. Zoe took a deep breath and looked up at me, leaning her cheek into my hand. "Do I really want to hear this?"

"I think you will." I told her, pushing her hair out of her eyes and pressing my forehead against hers. . "I love you, Zo and it doesn't matter to me that I'm not supposed to because you're meant to be SKUL's secret weapon or the clone of the Mastermind because _I don't care_, Zoe. I love you and that's all that matters."

As I let that sink in, I suddenly became all-too aware of her hands pressed flat against my chest and the her close proximity. Almost involuntarily, even though I certainly wasn't complaining, I ducked my head and pressed my mouth to hers, hot and passionate and desperate, as my arms circled around her waist, holding her close. I picked her up easily and placed her on her desk, scattering the papers all over the floor. Zoe sighed into my shoulder as my mouth moved from her mouth to her jaw, making her grip my shoulder fiercely and gasp wildly.

"The bed." Zoe gasped, the back of my shirt bunched up in her fist. "Dan, the bed."

I pulled back to look her in the eye, brushing her fringe out of her eyes. Before I could make my lips form the words I wanted, she tugged my shirt over my head and kissed me, her hands tangling in my hair as I complied to her request, pulling her off the desk and laying her down on the bed, kissing her feverishly until I could practically feel my soul finding hers, the two infusing together and becoming one, as if it were unnatural for them to be apart.


	4. Chapter 4

**Dan**

As I lay underneath the covers with Zoe, my body still tangled with her's, I traced invisible patterns on her arm, desperately trying to memorise every part of her. Zoe's head was against the crook of my neck and every now and then she would press a kiss to my skin, sending a shiver down my spine.

"I don't want to go. I don't want to leave you." Zoe said finally, looking up at me through her lashes. I could see tears brimming her eyes.

"I know." I said, kissing her forehead. I pushed myself up on my elbows so I could see her properly. "Look, I get _why _you need to do this, Zoe. Really, I do. I can handle you leaving. I just can't handle you not coming back."

Zoe sighed and sat up, reaching behind her to unclasp the necklace around her neck before she dropped it into my palm. She closed my hand around it and I looked up at her, the image of the necklace floating behind my eyelids.

"Keep this safe." Zoe breathed, her eyes searching mine. "I'll be back for it."

I nodded and moved to press a kiss to her forehead. I felt Zoe's hand on my shoulder as I moved away, climbing out of the bed and pulling my clothes on. As I moved towards the window, I heard Zoe's voice saying my name. I turned, drinking in her expression as she said, "You gave me a paradise within a nightmare, Dan. And for that . . . for that, I can't tell you how thankful I am."

I stared at her. What I really wanted was to kiss her, to crush my lips against hers and hold her tight, to lose myself in her until she promised that she wasn't going anywhere. But I knew that wasn't going to happen – she was much too stubborn for that. So I simply gave her a small smile, pushed her necklace into the pocket of my jeans and climbed out the window.

I don't even know how I managed to get home – I felt like I was stumbling, my mind racing as my feet moved on habit, until I was hauling myself through an all-too-familiar window. I expected to be able to fall onto my own bed and sleep. Instead, I stumbled forward a few paces, immediately noticing a Sherlock poster hanging on the wall.

"Dan?" I heard Caroline ask. I turned around to face her and her eyes were what struck me the most – those eyes, those eyes that were so much like my own, were filled with so much worry and concern that if I had been able to feel anything other than the fierce, painful pounding of my heart against my ribcage, I knew I would have been able to feel enough gratitude to wrap my arms around her. Instead, I forced myself to stay still, so that it would minimise the chances of me shattering into a million pieces.

"Come here." Caroline said, shifting closer to the wall. Normally I would have made some snide remark – and in my defence, I did try to come up with one – but instead I crawled onto the bed beside her, and let her embrace me the way I used to hold her when we were six and she was scared that there was a man hiding under her bed, just waiting for the right moment to hurt her.

"What happened?" Caroline asked quietly, resuming her movie.

"I don't want to talk about it." I mumbled, pulling out Zoe's necklace. I traced my fingers over the oval-shaped pendant and twisted my head in time to see a zombie who barely passed for a zombie – he wasn't rotting or anything – wipe a heap of old blood on a blonde girl cheek and struggle to say 'safe' onscreen.

"What's this?" I asked, glancing between Caroline and the screen.

"_Warm Bodies_." Caroline replied. "It's about a zombie who falls in love with a human and then saves all of humanity."

"Salvation's boring." I replied. "Zombies are supposed to be eating people and people are meant to be screaming because the world's over and they're going to die. Zombies do not have brains, their hearts don't work. They're not supposed to fall in love. They can't."

"Says who?" Caroline asked, amused.

"Says me." I told her, sitting up.

"You're going to be disappointed." Caroline said, tilting her head to the side and twisting her hair quickly into a side braid that hung over right shoulder.

"And why is that?" I asked.

Caroline grinned, shaking her head in amusement. "Because the universe doesn't bend to your will, Dan. You can't have everything that you want."

She said it lightly, but something in that sentence reminded me of what I was losing and the pain of that loss, which had been temporarily submerged and forgotten, emerged and crashed into me again with full force.

"Clearly." I said.

"I . . . Dan, that's not what I meant." Caroline said gently. "I'm sorry. I didn't think."

She looked down and noticed the necklace in my hands, reaching out slowly to trace her fingers across the pendant. "Is that hers?"

"Yeah." I said, dropping into her palm. "It's supposed to be some kind of insurance that she'll be back – she told me to look after it and she'll be back for it."

"Did she promise you that she'd be back?" Caroline asked, handing me back Zoe's necklace.

"Yeah. But I don't know whether I should take her word for it or not."

"Well, Zoe's never made a promise to anyone before." Caroline said.

"Yeah. So?"

"Don't you think that a promise would mean a lot more to someone who has never made one in their life over someone who makes them every day? And don't you think that that promise would be a lot more special, that she cares about so much that she feel obliged to promise that to you?" Caroline asked.

I stared at her. "I never thought about it like that."

"Clearly." Caroline said with a grin.


	5. Chapter 5

**First off, I want to thank all of you for all your lovely reviews on this story and to TheAlphabetSong: yes, guilty, you caught me. I surrender.**

* * *

"You're upset about something." Camden said, watching me carefully.

"Huh?" Vanessa and I asked at the same time, our contrasting accents mingling together to create a very odd-sounding unintelligible noise.

Camden turned to Vanessa, sitting on his other side. "Care's upset about something."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm fine. I'm not upset."

"Who's upset?" Ains asked as he walked up and sat beside me. I groaned and sarcastically, "Why don't we just broadcast it to the whole school?"

"Broadcast what?" Our Principal, Ms Jackson, said as she passed us. She was a slim, young woman, who was much too gentle and trusting for a high school principal. We could lie our way out of any situation and generally, everyone did. She would have made a much better primary school teacher.

"Nothing, Miss." I told her. Ms Jackson shrugged, but she continued on her way. That's what I mean about her being way too trusting – we could have been organising to go smoke pot after school, for all she knew.

"So what's up with you?" Camden asked, bumping his shoulder against mine.

Before I could think up an excuse, Ains piped up, brushing his brown hair back and off his forehead. "Just leave it, Cam. If she doesn't want to tell you, she doesn't have to."

I turned to smile at him as Camden stood and said, "You're whipped, you know that?"

"And you're a dick." Ains replied, smiling.

"Arsehole." Camden shot back.

"That it." Ains muttered, getting up and flinging himself at Camden. Vanessa and I laughed as the two rolled around on the ground together, using absolutely none of their training against each other. As we watched them, Vanessa scooted over to me. "So what's up, Care?"

I felt more comfortable telling her while Camden couldn't hear; no offense to him, but he had a big mouth. I sighed, looking across at the sign in the garden that said 'St Hope's High School'. "It's nothing to do with me – it's about Dan."

"Dan's your brother, right?" Vanessa asked and I nodded.

"His girlfriend just left him." I said.

"What, like, they broke up?"

I shook my head. "No, like, she _actually left_. He's not taking it too well."

"I wonder why." Vanessa said sarcastically. She squeezed my arm comfortingly. "He'll be fine, Care."

I gave her a small smile and turned back to Camden and Ains as Camden tried to wriggle out from under Ains and the taller of the two looked up. "Care, want to come give me hand?"

Camden gave up and twisted his head so he could see around Ains as he made an unusual wailing sound. "Nessa, come and help me!"

I grinned as I got up and walked towards them. "Unless you want me to sit on his legs, there's not much I can do. I'm really small."

"Well, you could make me heavier." Ains said, grinning up at me cheekily.

"How do you propose I do that?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips. Ains didn't respond, instead opting to grasp my wrist, pulling me down to him. I managed to twist my body around as he pulled me into his lap, his arms wrapping around my waist so that Camden wouldn't push me off as he struggled.

I could feel Ains' hands against my stomach, through my school uniform, and I yelped in surprise. I could feel Ains laughing against my back as Camden's fist slammed into Ains' broad back. "Okay, okay! You win. Get off me now."

Ains laughed, but he released me and I jumped to my feet, taking his outstretched hand and hauling him up. I leaned down and grabbed Camden's shoulder, helping him to his feet as Vanessa walked over. "Guys."

"Yeah?" I said, turning to face her and coming face-to-face with the flashing rubber of a pencil communicator. I shared a grin with Vanessa before we all took off, brushing past our fellow students in our rush to get to the storage cupboard.

* * *

"Welcome to your first mission." Oscar said as we walked in. I looked down at myself and bit back a grin. I was dressed all in black – black boots that finished a few centimetres below the knee, black leggings, a simple black top and a black leather jacket. My hair was twisted into a thick, elaborate side braid. I ran my finger across it and felt a pang of jealousy towards the elevator – it could do my hair a lot better than I could.

I heard a sharp intake of breath and I turned, my eyes making contact with Ains' depthless brown ones. He was staring at me, almost as if he'd never seen me before. Instinctively, I flushed and looked away, mumbling, "I swear I have three heads sometimes."

Camden and Vanessa sniggered, but Ains smiled and shook his head. "No, you're fine, Care. Really."

"Then why are you staring at me like that?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Because . . . you look nice." Ains said, his eyes finding mine and catching them.

"_Care!" _Vanessa whined and Ains ducked his head, looking away from me. Slightly annoyed for no apparent reason, I turned to look at the brunette. Her hair was down and wavy, framing her soft, delicate features as it spilled over her shoulders. She was in all black, like me, except she was wearing really cool studded ankle-high sneakers-crossed-with-boots-type things on her feet and paired with black skinny jeans and a black leather jacket with studs along the collar, she looked like a force to be reckoned with. With a start, I realised that we all did – even Ains and Camden. We all looked tough and fierce. Untouchable.

"If you're all done admiring each other." Oscar said, from across the room.

"What's our mission?" Vanessa asked, practically bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet.

Oscar pulled up a photo of a man, about fifty years old, with a head of short black hair, spotted with grey. He had kind hazel eyes, but I knew that if Oscar was showing us a photo of him, odds are, he wasn't very nice.

"Surveillance mission." Oscar said. "This is Doctor Nefarious. He's under suspicion for being the head of the KORPS wing STERNUM. We want you to tail him, just to find out if he is."

Vanessa and I exchanged an excited glance, her brown eyes twinkling with excitement. Oscar turned to Ains. "Ains, you'll be on comms. Caroline, Camden and Vanessa – I don't think I need to tell you what your job will be."


	6. Chapter 6

**Caroline**

"So what's with you and Ains?" Vanessa asked as we crouched behind a stack of bins. Vanessa was crouched in the middle, with me on her right and Camden on her left. Camden leaned back, one hand braced on the wall behind him so that I could see his grin. I shook my head and turned away. "There's nothing going on between me and Ains. We're just friends."

"Yeah." Camden said, nodding. "And my dog can talk."

I rolled my eyes and before I could say anything, I heard Ains' voice down my earpiece; "_Guys, you know I _can _hear you, so I know when you're talking about me. And Caroline."_

"That's cheating." Camden muttered. Vanessa giggled, but I kicked her in the shin to shut her up as the man from Oscar's photo walked towards the door we were hiding near, glancing around quickly before he started typing a code into the keypad beside the door.

All of a sudden, before either of us could stop him, Camden got up and approached Doctor Nefarious, as if they were nothing more than school friends. I bit my lip and forced myself to keep quiet as Camden started talking to him in some foreign language. It sounded like Russian.

Doctor Nefarious looked surprised, but he said something back in Russian. I hissed through my teeth in frustration – I hated not knowing what people were saying.

Camden said something – arrogantly, from the Doctor's reaction – and Doctor Nefarious' eyes widened and he turned, slamming his hand against the door handle. Suddenly Camden was surrounded by KORPS agents, fighting them off as best as he could. Vanessa and I sprung up from our hiding spots and some of the KORPS agents turned to us. I took on one who looked almost as ripped as Vin Diesel. Swallowing my fear, I dodged as he swiped for my head. I kicked him in the stomach, but he grabbed my leg and pushed me back a few steps. I took a deep breath and threw a punch, but he grabbed my arm and twisted it. I cried out as pain shot up my arm and he let go. I stumbled back into the wall, holding my injured wrist against my body to keep it still and watched as Camden came up behind the KORPS agent and knocked him out. I stared at the agent as he fell, slowly dragging my gaze to Camden.

"Are you alright?" Camden asked, Vanessa by his side.

I shook my head and motioned to my injured wrist. It was throbbing now and I bit my lip against the pain as Vanessa started forward, reaching for my arm. I grudgingly allowed her to take it, grinding my teeth together and her finger, deft and quick and gentle on my injured wrist.

"We need to get her back to HQ." Vanessa said finally.

"Thank you for stating the obvious." Camden said, turning to walk off.

* * *

"In case you hadn't noticed, you're part of a team, Camden! You are – " Oscar's voice, yelling at Camden, was cut off as the door shut. I cradled my injured wrist against my stomach as Ains walked across the room, grabbing the first aid kit off the shelf. Ains motioned towards one of the chairs in one corner of the room and I sat, watching as he pulled up a chair in front of me and sat down. He pulled out a bandage from the first aid kit and held out his hand. Gingerly, I placed my arm in his hand, my fingers gripping the edge of his jacket as his fingers brushed against my skin, sending warmth up my whole arm. As he started bandaging my wrist, he asked, "Are you alright?"

I laughed bitterly. "Yeah. I'm just disappointed. Our first mission and I go and break my wri – "

"Sprain." Ains interrupted.

"Huh?" I asked.

"It's just a sprain." Ains said. "Your wrist. You've only sprained it. If it were broken, I wouldn't be able to touch it without you screaming."

I shook my head. "Either way, I wish I hadn't screwed up."

"It's not your fault." Ains said, murmuring an apology as pain shot up my arm. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I rolled my eyes. "If you're going to blame Camden, keep your mouth shut, Ains. I don't want to hear it."

"I wasn't going to blame Camden." Ains said patiently. "I was going to blame whoever it is that trained you."

I stared at him. "Why? What have they got to do with anything?"

"You've been trained the way that every other MI9 agent gets trained." Ains stated.

"_So?"_

"_So _they're trained to use their hands and feet – to use brute force. That's alright for some people, but you're much too small for that."

"Thanks." I muttered, looking away. I didn't like to be reminded that I was short – especially when my twin brother was six foot.

"That's not what I meant." Ains said. "Look, you were trained to use your own strength against your opponent, but you're not built for that."

I looked back at him. "So what do you suggest?"

"Your opponents are always going to underestimate you, Caroline. Use that against them – use their strengths against them. We make you fast and we teach you to think on your feet, to identify your opponent's weaknesses and how to use it against them." He said, finishing off the bandage around my wrist and sitting back.

"So, who's going to teach me to fight like that?" I asked. "Who's going to bother to retrain me?"

Ains looked offended. "How dare you ask that, Caroline Morgan? I will, of course."

I stared at him. "You'd really do that? You'd really do that for me?"

"Course I would. We can't have you breaking arms every mission, can we?" Ains replied jokingly.

I smiled. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. How's your wrist?"

"Fine." I said. In all honesty, I'd lost all recognition of my wrist – the pain had faded out to a gentle thrumming in my arm as I lost myself in the warmth of his brown eyes.


	7. Chapter 7

**Caroline**

As soon as Ains and I walked into the main part of HQ, Camden, Oscar and Vanessa looked up. Oscar was still fuming and I could see the guilt painted across Camden's face as he looked me over, noticed my bandaged wrist and looked away, hunching his shoulders.

"Are you alright, Care?" Vanessa asked, her accent thickening with concern. I'd noticed that her accent did that when she felt angry or stressed or anxious.

"I'm fine." I told her, crossing the room to where Camden was sitting, sitting beside him and putting my good arm awkwardly around his shoulders; his back was much broader than my arm was long so I just kind of draped it across his shoulders. Camden turned to look at me, his hazel eyes looking at me sadly. "Are you sure you're alright, Caroline?"

That was like a punch in the gut – in the two and half months I'd known him, Camden had never called me Caroline, not even when we first met. He'd always me Care (except for once that one time when he called me cutie and I punched him in the nose), so to hear him call me by my actual name was a shock and wake-up call to how guilty he must be feeling. I squeezed his shoulders as best I could comfortingly and said, "I'm fine, Cam. Ains patched me up."

Camden reached out and touched my bandage, looking up at Ains before looking back at me. "I'm really sorry, Care. I didn't mean for anybody to get hurt."

"I know." I said. "Everyone walked away, so it's okay."

Oscar turned to me, his blue eyes hard. "And as for you, Caroline Morgan – "

"Don't start on her." Ains said, cutting him off. "It wasn't her fault." His tone surprised me – I'd come to associate Ains as an easy-going person and in the short time I'd known him, he'd never raised his voice. Now, his tone was hard and I knew that him yelling was a very real possibility.

Oscar turned on Ains, folding his arms over his chest. "Say that again, Ainsworth Williamson."

"It was her fault." Ains repeated. "She's been trained the way every other MI9 agent has, when she shouldn't have. She's been trained to fight with her fists and feet. She should have been trained to fight with her elbows and knees."

"And Oscar, c'mon." Vanessa added. "That guy was _huge_."

Oscar sighed, turning to Ains. "So what do you propose we do, then?"

Ains' gaze flitted to me quickly before returning to Oscar. "Take her off active duty and let me re-train her to fight in a way that uses her lack of height as an advantage."

Oscar turned to me. "Would you be okay with that?"

"What's the alternative?" I asked.

"Firing you." Oscar said.

I glanced at Vanessa and looked back at Oscar, squaring my shoulders. "Okay. Let's do it."

* * *

"Caroline!"

I turned to see Ains running after me, his feet pounding on the pavement. Before I could even utter a greeting, he had grabbed my bag from me and swung the strap on his shoulder.

"You know, it's just a sprained wrist." I told him. "I can carry my own bag."

"Camden doesn't think so." Ains commented as Camden fell into step beside me. He appeared to have recovered from his brief spot of guilt and self-doubt, giving me a lazy smile as he fell into step with Ains and I.

I gave him an incredulous look as I felt an arm slip through mine and I turned my head to see Vanessa grinning at me, her brown eyes twinkling with mischief. "Hey, Care."

"What is this?" I asked, looking between my friends. "Are we, like, all coming to have a party at my house?"

"That's a great idea!" Vanessa said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, no it's not." I told her.

"And why not?" Ains asked.

"I have four words for you to answer that question." I told him. "My. Brother. Daniel. Morgan."

"Ains'll start fangirling if we go near Dan." Camden commented.

Ains kicked him in the shin as he walked, causing Camden to stumble and Vanessa and I to erupt into a giggles as Ains said, "I believe the politically correct term is fanboy, Camden. And I will _not _be fanboying over him, thank you very much."

"Whatever." Camden said flippantly as we turned into my street. Ains aimed another kick at him and Camden danced out of his way, laughing as we reached my house and I unlocked the door. I walked straight into the living room, throwing myself onto the couch. The others quickly joined me – Ains and Vanessa on either side of me while Camden lounged on the floor near Vanessa's feet.

"We should – " I started, just as Dan entered the room. I noticed that there was something off about his expression before he quickly masked it by looking around at my friends. "Um . . ."

"Oh, Dan, this is my team. Ains, Vanessa and Camden." I said, gesturing to each of them as I spoke their name. "Guys, this is my brother Dan."

Dan waved almost weakly and I noticed that off look in his eyes and I realised why it didn't look right – Dan had worn a similar expression when he'd told me that Zoe was leaving. Before I could ask him if he was okay, Dan's eyes travelled to the bandage on my wrist and he said, "Care, can I talk to you in the kitchen?"

"Sure." I said, getting up and following. Behind me, Camden yelled out, "Oh, you're in deep shit now, Care!" and I ignored him because no less than two seconds later, I heard the unmistakable slap of skin colliding with skin and Vanessa said, "Shut the fuck up, Camden Augur."

I heard Ains laughing and I bit back a smile as Dan shut the door behind us, suddenly grasping my arm just above the bandage. "What happened, Care?"

"I'm fine." I told him. "It's just a sprain."

Dan nodded, dropping his arm and walking a few steps away. I studied his posture, trying to get a read on his emotions. It had been a month since Zoe had left and I knew that things weren't getting any easier for him. He kept Zoe with him wherever he went, just so he could be close to her in some way, but everything else was just painful reminders. And even though he hadn't told me, I knew what had gone down that last night – I knew that Dan and Zoe had had sex that night. Despite what Dan thought, I wasn't ignorant. I knew my own twin. I knew how to read him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! Just quickly, there's some stuff I wanted to clear up in regards to this story. First off, this story kind of runs parallel to series 7, in that it's set around the same time, but none of the events in series 7 are included in this story. And yes, Frank and Oscar's teams do team up on several occasions throughout this story, but not for a little while yet. Okay? Okay.**

* * *

**Caroline**

"Dan, what's happened?" I asked. "Is Zoe – "

"No, no. Zoe's fine." Dan said, turning to face me. "Turns out she and Tom have been all buddy-buddy since she left."

He heavily sunk into one of the chairs at the counter, resting his arms on the counter and staring at the surface gloomily. I sighed and reached forward, taking his hands in my own. He looked up at me, sad eyes studying my expression as I said, "I know she loves you, Dan. I could see it, every single second that you were together. This trip that she's on, it's not to hurt you, okay? It's something that she needs to do. She needs to work out who she is and she needs to learn to love herself before she can love you as completely as she wants to."

Dan stared at me. "When did you get so wise?"

I smiled and gestured to my injured wrist. "It's the pain."

Dan laughed but it sounded forced to me and I asked, "Something did happen, though."

Dan nodded. "Um . . . They've replaced Zoe."

"Replaced her? With who?"

"One of her sisters. Keri. She's a total airhead and Tom finds it hilarious and I can't even . . ." He trailed off and ducked his head, pressing the heels of his hands into his temples. I swung myself up and onto the counter, sliding across the cool surface and landing beside Dan on the other side.

"Dan." I said quietly. Dan raised his head and looked at me, surprised, but he let me hug him tightly, his arms wrapping around my tiny frame. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and rubbed his back gently. "She'll find her way back to you, Dan. I promise."

Dan pulled away, nodding. "I'm gonna go up to my room for a bit."

I nodded, watching him sadly as he trudged out of the kitchen and up the staircase to his bedroom. I sighed and walked back into the living room. Without a word, I walked over to the couch and wedged myself between Ains and the armrest, sighing and dropping my head onto Ains' shoulder. He looked surprised and he stiffened, and I was about to lift my head when he relaxed and asked, "What's with you?"

"Dan." I mumbled into his jacket.

"What's wrong with him?" Camden asked, sitting on the other end of the couch, wedged between Vanessa and the armrest. I sighed and lifted my head from Ains' shoulder, twisting so my back was resting against the armrest and my feet were wedged underneath his thigh. Ains grabbed my ankles and pulled them across his lap, causing me to shriek in surprise. Vanessa grinned knowingly at me, but I simply started telling about what was happening with Dan and Zoe, as if my heart wasn't pounding against my ribcage so forcefully that I was sure that the others could hear it.

When I was done, Vanessa and Camden were staring at me and Ains was looking down at my feet in his lap.

"Poor Dan." Vanessa said finally.

* * *

When Ains, Vanessa and Camden left, I walked upstairs and knocked on Dan's bedroom door. I heard him mumble something that sounded like 'come in'. I walked in and found him sitting on the bed, Zoe's necklace in his hands. "Is your boyfriend gone, then?"

I stared at him. "My – what? My boyfriend? What are you – "

"The tall one." Dan said.

"Ains and Camden are both tall." I pointed out.

Dan rolled his eyes. "The one with the light brown hair."

"_Ains? _He's not – we're not – I mean, we're just . . . We're just friends." I stuttered.

Dan looked amused. "Do I need to give you the sex talk?"

"Why, because no one gave it to you?" I asked, the words out of my mouth before I could stop them. Dan stared at me and I clapped my hand over my mouth, as if that could stop the effect my words had on him.

Dan glowered at me darkly. "How did you know?"

I crossed my arms over my chest defensively. "I'm stupid, Daniel Morgan. I know when something's wrong with you. You came home really late that night and you looked like Heaven and Hell put together."

Dan relaxed against the bedhead. "I guess you deserve more credit than you get."

"And why is that?" I asked him, sitting on the bed near his feet.

"Because you're smarter than you look."

I smiled, waving my injured arm. "Well, I'm definitely not stronger."

Dan laughed. "What happened, anyway?"

So I told him. I told him about the KORPS agent who was as heavily built as Vin Diesel, how he'd grabbed me and twisted my arm, cleverly leaving out how the whole fight started. I didn't want to get Camden in trouble with Dan too. When I had finished describing the fight, I told him about my conversation with Ains about me being trained wrong. I expected Dan to disagree, but instead he nodded. "He's right, Care. You're too short to be trained the way the rest of us are."

I stared at him. "You _agree _with him?"

Dan looked irritated. "Yes. Is that so hard to believe, that I would agree with any opinion that isn't my own?"

"Yes." I told him. "As a rule, you don't agree with people."

"Well, consider this an exception." Dan said. "He's a smart kid – he knows what you need as a spy and he knows how to identify weaknesses in his fellow agents and how to overcome them."

"He's the same age as you." I pointed out.

Dan sighed. "My point is that he knows and accepts that you're short and he knows how to find a way around it. I agree with your boyfriend, Caroline."

I looked away. "He's not my boyfriend."


	9. Chapter 9

Today was my first day of re-training. Camden and Vanessa were out on a mission, with Oscar on comms, so Ains and I were in the training room.

"Okay." Ains said. "What's going to be the most common problem you're going to encounter on missions?"

"That my opponent's going to be taller and stronger than me." I replied.

Ains nodded. "But that can also be their downfall – the bigger you are, the harder you fall. And with you, people will underestimate you. That can be used to your advantage. How?"

"They won't be as focused because they'll think that it's an easy fight." I said. "And they'll be guarding their faces, most likely, so I could target their legs and knock them down that way."

"And you'd be better off using your elbows and your knees, because you'll have to get in closer to them." Ains said. "Now, show me how you stand."

Immediately, I shifted into my fighting stance, one foot behind the other with my clenched fists raised. Ains shook his head and moved to stand behind me, placing his hands on my waist and twisting my body, so I was standing side-on instead. I swallowed and tried not to let our current position distract me – his hands were still on my hips and I could feel the warmth of his skin, even though there was a tank top and a light jacket between his hand and my hips and I could smell him. It wasn't something overwhelming – he didn't wear cologne like Camden. On Ains, I could smell soap and guy's deodorant and underneath, the faint smell of sweat.

"Stand like this." Ains said softly, his hands moving from my hips to the small of my back before he stepped back, leaving me practically gasping for air. Mentally, I slapped myself across the face and told myself to get a grip. He was just a boy.

_A really hot boy_, a voice whispered suggestively in the back of my head. Annoyed, I gagged the voice and shoved it away. I didn't need voices in my head telling me how hot he was; I already knew that. What I _needed _was to focus on retraining myself.

A small smile was playing on Ains' mouth as he pushed a punching bag forward. "Let's see what you can do, Care."

I took a deep breath and took a swing, surprised when it swung backwards and then moved towards me. I yelled in surprise and dived out of the way, hitting at it as it swung through the space I had previously occupied. Quickly, I fell into a rhythm, hitting and then dodging as it swung back towards me. Each time I used my fists or my feet, Ains would yell for me for me to use my elbows and knees. Eventually, I got sick of being told what I was doing wrong, because I already knew that. So the next time he said it, I channelled all my frustration in myself and as he walked behind me, I pulled my arm back as hard and as fast as my tired, sore bicep would let me, slamming my elbow into his jaw. Ains cursed and stumbled backwards, away from me, and I turned to face him, pursing my lips as he brought his hand to his jaw, his eyes flying to meet mine. I considered feigning remorse for the nasty bruise that was sure to develop on his jaw, but I quickly dismissed the idea. I didn't feel sorry for what I'd done and I didn't see the point in pretending that I did.

"What – the hell – was that for?" Ains gasped, rubbing his sore jaw.

"You pissed me off." I told him, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Clearly." Ains muttered. He glanced between me and the punching bag and sighed, letting his hand drop. He touched my wrist and then jerked his head towards the door. "Come on. I think we're done for the day."

I stared after him in disbelief, but I followed him out of the training room and into the main part of HQ. Camden and Vanessa were back, sitting on two chairs side by side as Oscar debriefed them. All three looked up as Ains and I entered and Ains rubbed his jaw thoughtfully as I sat down beside Vanessa and Ains sat beside Camden.

"What happened to you?" Camden asked, turning to look at Ains.

Ains' dark eyes moved to me, holding my gaze as he said, "I found out what happens when you piss Caroline off."

"She got you?" Vanessa asked, grinning.

Ains nodded and tilted his head to the side, brushing his fingertips across the spot where my elbow connected with his jaw. Camden grinned and turned to me, holding his hand out for a high-five. "Nice."

I grinned back and slapped my palm against his, even as Ains' lack of an angry response tugged at the back of my mind. It was confusing – I'd _deliberately _elbowed him in the face, but yet he hadn't even raised his voice at me. If I had been me, my voice would have been so loud, it would broken windows, but maybe that was just me.

As if he could read my mind, Ains walked around behind me and ducked his head low, his fingers curling around the back of my chair as he said, "Care, don't worry about it. I get it; you were frustrated. Now I know what _not _to do. It takes a lot to get me angry."

I twisted my head around to look at him as he lifted his head, taking in his expression carefully. I could see a faint bruise forming on his jaw, but he gave me a small, reassuring smile. I found it within myself to smile softly back and murmur, "I'm sorry."

And I found that I was – I was sorry that I'd hit him, sorry that I'd let my emotions run so ramped and out of control that I would resort to hitting him.

"I know you are." Ains said, pulling his chair around a sitting down beside me. As I turned back around, I could feel Vanessa, Camden and Oscar's eyes on the side of my face and I looked up, fixing them with an annoyed look. "What?"


	10. Chapter 10

I stared at the punching bag one more time before I twisted and slammed my elbow into it, much like I had a week ago, when I gave Ains the now fading bruise on his jaw, so hard that when it swung away from me, it swung back so far that it fell over backwards. I grinned and tiredly shook blonde hair, soaked in sweat, out of my eyes as I met Ains' gaze. He was smiling, almost as if me knocking out a punching bag was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen.

"Water." I said, pointing to the bottle at his feet. Without a word, Ains bent over and picked it up, throwing it to me without really aiming. It went too high, sailing over my head, and I jumped up, plucking it out of the air easily. I took a long gulp from it, sitting down as Ains said, "You're getting better."

"Am I?" I asked.

Ains nodded. "We're done with the punching bag."

I rolled the wrist I'd injured on our first ill-fated mission thoughtfully. It had healed quickly; I'd stopped wearing a bandage on it three days ago. "So what's next? You have me fight Vanessa?"

"Vanessa wouldn't be an issue for you." Ains said, but that was a major compliment on his part. It was no secret that Vanessa had been an agent for the ASIO a long time before she came to the UK. We all knew that she was recruited at the age of fourteen.

"That's bullshit, Ains, and you know it." I told him. "Vanessa could kick my arse in her sleep."

Ains rolled his eyes and moved to sit in front of me, crossing his legs and leaning back on his hands. "My point is, you and Vanessa are similar heights. The whole point of me training you is so that you can take on foes much bigger and stronger than yourself without any problems."

I studied him carefully. I noted that he was much bigger and stronger than me. "So I'm versing you, then."

"You're a smart girl." Ains commented with a grin. I looked away, twirling the drawstring of my workout pants around my finger nervously. I felt fingers, long and calloused, wrap around my wrist and I turned to look at him, staring right into Ains' fathomless brown eyes as he breathed, "You'll be fine, Caroline."

I bit my lip and looked away again. I didn't know why, but the idea of fighting _him_, Ains, who I'd seen take down a whole group of KORPS agent single-handedly once, made me feel sick. I knew that I wasn't worried about him hurting me; I knew that he wouldn't harm a hair on my head if he could help it and I knew that this had to be done. I knew that. But I guessed that I was afraid of failure, afraid that all the time and effort that he had spent undoing and redoing MI9's poorly executed training would be all of nothing.

"You'll be fine." Ains told me, reaching forward and folding me in his arms. I gasped in surprise, but I wrapped my arms around his waist and rested my head against his collarbone, closing my eyes. He felt warm and safe, and I felt myself smile as he murmured into my hair, "You'll be great, Caroline."

Then he released me, his hand trailing down my bare arm. "Okay?"

I looked up at him, nodding. "Okay."

Satisfied, Ains leaned back on his hands and grinned. I watched him for a moment and asked, "So how do you know about this? I mean, seriously, it's not a common fact – how you retrain a secret agent. So, what, have you done this before?"

Ains tilted his head to the side. "Everyone has their secrets, Caroline."

"But friends don't." I told him.

"You have your secrets." Ains responded. "How long have I known you now? Three months? I don't know much about you except for the fact that you're stubborn, hot-headed and you've got a pain in the arse for a twin brother."

"That's more than I know about you." I pointed out.

Ains smiled. "Okay, fine. I'm an orphan. My parents died in a car crash when I was six. I was recruited by MI9 when I was fourteen and I spent six months doing field work before they moved me to MI9 Headquarters to train agents before they moved me here."

I stared at him. If someone told me that someone in my team was an orphan and asked me to guess which one, I would probably respond with 'Can I say me?' because in truth, it felt like I were an orphan sometimes. Dan and I often went for days without seeing Mum and Dad, and at times it was like I hated the entire world for reasons I didn't really understand.

"Thank you." Ains said, breaking the silence.

"What for?" I asked.

"For not looking at me like I'm kicked dog who needs coddling." Ains replied, giving me a small smile. "Okay, your turn."

I took a deep breath and pulled my knees up into my chest. "Well, I don't see my parents a lot. They're very work-orientated people and a lot of the time, they start early and finish late, so Dan and I kind of just fend for ourselves. And when do actually see them, Dad's always in a bad mood and Mum never does anything to stop him from yelling at us all the time for no good reason, so whenever he's home Dan and I just end up going anywhere but home."

Ains was staring at me, not like I was kicked puppy, but as if he'd never seen me before, or like he just _really _seeing me for the first time. "Caroline . . . I had no idea."

I smiled bitterly. "Yeah, well, it's not something I like people knowing."

Ains smiled. "Ditto."

I grinned. "So, you live in a foster home?"

Ains nodded. "Same one as Vanessa. Somehow, I ended up in an MI9 foster home. Luck of the draw, I guess. It'll admit, it's better than being out on the streets."


	11. Chapter 11

**Caroline**

Ains and I looked up as Oscar walked in, his brow furrowed in worry. Both of us started to our feet as Oscar said, "We've got a situation."

"Why? What's going on?" I asked. Vanessa and Camden were out on a mission, gathering intel on a suspected KORPS base. It wasn't supposed to have room to turn dangerous, but you never could really tell with KORPS.

"Camden and Vanessa were captured." Oscar said. "KORPS jumped them and even Vanessa's superior fighting experience couldn't stand against them. Ains, I want you to go in after them."

"Seriously?" I cut in. "You're still keeping me off active duty?"

"Caroline –" Oscar started.

"No. These people have just captured two of us and you want to send in one after them? That's a suicide mission, Oscar, just waiting to happen." I said angrily.

Oscar groaned softly as Ains said, "She has a point, Oscar. You can't send me into a KORPS base on my own."

"She's untrained – "

"Not exactly. She's been doing well, Oscar. She should be fine." Ains said.

"Knocking out a punching bag is completely different to battling KORPS agents." Oscar said.

"I know that –" I started.

"She'll be able to hold her own." Ains said stubbornly.

Oscar groaned. "Fine. Go, before I change my mind."

* * *

"Entrance point." Ains said softly, peering around the wall we were hiding behind. I looked around him, eyes searching frantically until I spotted an unguarded door with a keypad beside it. I nodded towards it, my eyes flickering up to Ains' face. "There."

"It has a keypad." Ains pointed out.

"And you're tech-savvy MI9 agent." I told him, starting towards the door. Ains made a soft hissing noise through his teeth, but he followed, pulling out his spy pod and holding it over the keypad. He waited for a few seconds before the door clicked open and he turned to grin at me.

I grinned back at him, watching as he pushed the door open and held it open for me. I ducked my head as I walked past him, so that he wouldn't see my pink cheeks. I'd never had a boy hold a door open for me, except for my dad and Dan.

"Where do you think they'd be?" I asked, peering down the dark corridor and resisting the urge to rub my arms. This place was cold and damp and against my will, I shivered. Ains threw me a sidelong look, his eyes dancing with curiosity. "You alright?"

I nodded. "Yeah, just . . . it's cold in here."

Ains smiled. "That's KORPS bases for you."

I bit back a groan. "They're _all _like this?"

Ains laughed, but then he clamped his mouth shut when he realised where we were, pressing his lips together to stop himself form laughing. Then, he took a deep breath and said, grinning, "Unfortunately."

I smiled as we reached the end of the corridor, which opened up into a large room, which had two corridors coming off of it. Before we could even begin to debate which one to go down, a swarm of KORPS agents came down the right corridor. Ains immediately surged forward, punching one in the face. I kneed one in the stomach as he moved towards me, dodging out of the way of another, watching as he slammed into one of the others. I looked up to Ains kick one away from him and I shouted as one of the others crept up behind him. At the last possible second, he turned and shoved him away from me, looking over his shoulder at me. "Care, go find Cam and Ness. I'll hold them off."

"Are you sure?" I asked, terrified that I would leave him here and I would come back to find him lying in a pool of his own blood.

Ains nodded. "I'll be fine." When I didn't move, he yelled, "Go, Caroline!"

I turned and took off running down the only remaining corridor, my feet pounding loudly against the concrete floor. It occurred to me that my footsteps sounded much too heavy for my tiny body and I noticed that I could see the shadow of someone coming up behind me. My muscle suddenly tensed for a fight as the figure behind me swung their up towards my head and I ducked, kicking them back into the wall. As their grunt of pain filled the air, following the thump of their body colliding with the wall, I recognised the KORPS agent. He was massively ripped and much taller than I was. He was the agent who looked like Vin Diesel, the one who sprained my wrist and got me taken off of active duty. I grinned as he started towards me, reaching out to grab me, but I kicked him away. As he stumbled back, he managed to catch hold of my arm to pull me with him, but I twisted and slammed my elbow into his jaw. He cursed and let me go and I took off again, sprinting down the corridor as quickly as my short legs would carry me.

I was so focused on running that I didn't notice the two figures, one male and one female, running towards me until the last second and I slammed into the female, landing on my back. I groaned and noticed the features of the girl that was leaning over me. She had long brown hair that tumbled over her shoulders and soft, delicate features that were familiar to me. I didn't really realise who she was, until she said in an Australian accent, "Are you alright, Caroline?"

"Vanessa?" I asked, just as Camden's face appeared on the other side of my line of vision.

"Where's Ains?" Camden asked as I stumbled to my feet.

I groaned and lifted a hand to my throbbing head. "Somewhere. We should be getting back, actually."

Camden nodded and together, the three of us started running back down the way I'd come, our feet pounding loudly against the hard floor. As we ran, I tried to ignore the painful pounding in the side of my head.


	12. Chapter 12

**Caroline**

When we found our way back to Ains, he was standing in the room I'd left him in, the unconscious bodies of KORPS agents scattered around him as he leaned against the table. His chest was heaving and he looked tired and I noticed that there was a cut through his eyebrow, but his brown eyes were alight with excitement and adrenaline.

Those same eyes flickered up as Camden, Vanessa and I stumbled into the room together, looking around in astonishment. I looked up at him, my mouth curved into a grin. "You did this?"

"Hostages are too much effort." Ains replied flippantly, smiling down at me. I must've cut my face at one point because he frowned, tracing a line on my temple. "Are you alright, Care?"

I grinned up at him. I was better than alright; my heart was still pumping adrenaline through my veins and I could feel it buzzing in my blood as it raced around my body. It occured to me that I was breathing heavily, like Ains, but I barely noticed. All I could really focus on was the adrenaline and the brown of Ains' eyes.

"You know the guy who sprained my wrist?" I asked him, smiling.

"Yeah . . ." Ains said, unsure of where this was going.

"I fought him." I said proudly, like I was a little kid announcing that they'd come first in a race against their friends.

"And who won?" Ains asked.

"Well, she's standing here completely unharmed, isn't she?" Vanessa asked, moving to stand beside me and wrapping one arm around my shoulders. I laughed delirously and placed my head on her shoulder, wrapping my arm around her waist.

"How's the adrenaline feel, Caroline?" Ains asked, as I closed my eyes and smiled.

"Amazing." I replied, almost dreamily. I opened my eyes in time to see Camden and Ains exchange knowing looks before Ains stood up straight, regarding me with unwavering brown eyes. "We should get back."

I tried not to feel disappointed at his lack of a comment at my triumph with an agent much bigger and stronger than I and I fought to keep it out of my expression as Vanessa and I let go of each other so that we could follow the guys out, carefully stepping over unconscious KORPS agents.

* * *

"So what happened?" I asked. "We were told you were captured; you were clearly free when I found you."

Camden glanced over at Vanessa. "We went in there and they captured us. We were in a cell for about an hour when a woman came in, took one look at me and then yelled at the guards that they'd grabbed the wrong boy. Then, they let us go and we ran into Caroline."

I noticed Ains throw Oscar a slightly panicked look. Before I had much time to puzzle over it, Oscar sighed, running a hand through his short blonde hair. "That's puzzling. Normally, they would have just killed you - you'd found a functioning KORPS base. I don't understand why they'd let you go." He glanced at Vanessa and Camden solemnly. "Describe the woman."

Instead of answering, Vanessa said, "I know who she was."

"The Crime Minister?" I asked. Camden threw me a surprised look and nodded, and I shrunk back into my chair, ducking my head so they wouldn't see my darkened cheeks.

"How did you know that, Caroline?" Oscar asked.

I lifted my head and shrugged. "My twin brother's an agent. He tells me stuff."

Oscar sighed again. "Just the fact that Crime Minister was there is worrying in itself. If she's involved enough to personally be there, they're planning something big." He turned to Ains. "How's Caroline's re-training going?"

"Good. We're about to move onto fighting moving opponents." Ains replied, smiling over at me.

"How much longer do you think you'll need with her?"

Ains shrugged. "A week at the most."

"You have that. After that, if she's not fieldwork ready, we're going to have to seriosuly reconsider Caroline Morgan as an agent."

With that, he walked out, leaving me staring after him. I could feel tears pricking at my eyes and I reached up to brush them away, jolting in surprise when Ains wrapped his arm around my shoulders and squeezed. I smiled up at him as he let me go and Vanessa moved to sit beside me. "That was mean."

I smiled at her half-heartedly. "He's only doing his job, Ness. And he probably thinks that if he can scare me into thinking my job's on the line, I'll push myself harder."

"He didn't have to be a dick about it." Camden muttered.

I gave him a small smile and said, "Maybe he's just not a people person."

"Is that Caroline-speak for 'Hi, my name's Oscar and I'm a dick'?" Camden asked. Vanessa laughed and I shook my head as Ains glowered at the floor, as if Camden's words offended him personally.

"Ains?" I asked, bumping my shoulder against his. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Ains muttered. Then, abruptly, he looked up at Camden and said, "You know, he could have just had a really difficult childhood."

Camden shrugged and looked away guiltily. "I know. I was just . . . Trying to make Care feel a bit better."

"Well next time, try not to do it as someone else's expense." Ains told him bitterly. He walked off into the training room without lookimg back and I nervously gave Vanessa and Camden an apologetic look before I took off after him, my feet sliding on the concrete flooring a little.

When the door to the training room shut behind me, Ains turned to look at me as I asked, "What the hell is your problem?"

Ains ignored my question. "Let's train."

"Are you serious?"

"Do you want to be an agent or not, Caroline Morgan?" Ains yelled, turning to face me. I stared at him for a long time before I moved to stand in front of him, my hands against my sides, ready to curl into fists. "What do you want me to do?"


	13. Chapter 13

Ains surged forward and easily lifted my small body off the ground. He had my arms pinned to my sides and I grunted softl in frustration, kicking out furiously and catchin him in the stomach so hard that I knocked the wind out of him and he dropped me.

I gasped as I hit the floor wrong and pain shot up my leg, but I got to my feet and scrambled backwards a few metres. Ains got to his feet and started towards me, swinging his arm towards me. I kept low, so that his arm, thick and rippling with muscle, swung through the air above my head so quickly that I could _hear_ how the movement made the air move as I rolled to the side, springing to my feet behind him and kicking him squarely in the small of his back. I'd been too close to him when I kicked and I stumbled back a few steps, but I was grinning as I watched him stumble forward before he tripped and fell. I kicked his stomach so that he rolled over onto his back and, grinning, I straddled his hips and pressed my arm into his throat.

"Pinned you." I told him, grinning.

Ains grunted in response and flexed his body beneath me, abruptly throwing me off. My shoulder connected painfully with the floor, but I ignored the pain as I rolled to the side, pullinh my body up into a crouch. I didn't have any time to react as he tackled me to the ground, using his superior body weight to hold me down, to trap me between his body and the floor. I struggled and looked hopelessly up at Ains, who grinned down at me n amusement.

"Surrender." He told me, his voice surprisingly deep and tender. "Surrender, Caroline, and I'll let you go."

"Never." I hissed up at him, twisting and swingimg my arm so that my elbow connected with his face. Ains cursed and released his hold for a second, but it was all the opening I needed. Pushing myself free of him, I brought my knees up and kneed him in the chest, pushing him away that little bit more. Before he could recver and pin me back against the floor, I brought my knees up to my chest and then kicked out, both of my feet making contact squarely on his chest. Ains grunted and fell backwards with a thump and grinning, I got up and pulled him so he was kneeling, yanking his arms behind him. I leaned forward so my mouth was next to his ear and breathed, "I'll tell you something about me and my brother, Ainsworth. Something we both have in common. A trait."

"What?" Ains asked, his chest heaving with exertion. "What is it?"

"Stubbornness." I replied. "We're both stubborn as hell. We don't give up. And we never surrender."

"Noted." Ains said, twisting his head to look at me over his shoulder.

I studied his brown eyes, taking in the amusement and pride, how odd of a combination those two emotions made. "Do you surrender?"

"Yes." Ains said softly. I let go of his arms and pushed on his back, watching as he fell forward, but caught himself with his hands and rolled over, so he was leaning back on them and looking up at me as I got up and grabbed my drink bottle and took three big gulps to try and swallow my disappointment. Tomorrow was Oscar's deadline, the day he'd set to decide whether or not I had what it takes to be an agent after all.

As if he could read my thoughts, Ains said, "You'll do fine tomorrow, Caroline."

I didn't answer. I was sure that if I did, the tears would come. And I refused to cry in front of him. I couldn't.

"Care?"

"What do you want me to say?" I asked him, turning around. "Do you want me to agree with you? Well, then you can crush that hope, because it's not going to happen, Ains, because I don't agree with you. I know, that by this time next week, I won't be an agent because Oscar will have come to his senses and realised that although we're twins, for God's sake, I'm nothing like my brother. I'm not like Dan, because I don't have what it takes to be an agent, when he so clearly does. And he is a great agent and everyne who knows what he is knows it. And me? As usual, I'm the boring twin."

Ains was silent throughout my outburst, but now he abruptly got up to stand in front of me. "No, you're not, Caroline Morgan. You're not the boring twin. You have the potential to be an incredible agent and already, I see it."

"You're seeing things." I told him.

"No, I'm not." Ains said. "Care, I've lost count of how many agents I've trained. Some started out as kids so unfocused I was tempted to pull my hair out, but they all had at least a sliver of the potential to be great agents. And you . . . I look at you and I see it, Caroline. I see so much of it in you. You think that you don't have the potential to be as great an agent as Dan. I know you have the potential to be better."

I almost choked on the desire to kiss him, to see if those lips of his were as soft as they looked. As I forced it back down again, his hand swung towards my head and I ducked, shoving him away. "What the hell?"

Ains was laughing. "And that, right there, is proof that that potential exists, Caroline Morgan."

I smiled up at him, tucking a stray lock of blonde behind my ear. "Thankyou. I really . . . I really needed to hear that."

"You'll be fine tomorrow, Caroline." Ains told me, folding me in his arms. "You'll pass with flying colours."


	14. Chapter 14

**Dan**

I flung myself over the fence and landed wrong, stumbling forward a few steps as pain shot up my leg from my ankle. I hissed in pain and reluctantly hobbled over to the nearest bench, sinking down into it. I sighed as I bent at the waist, slipping off my shoe and rolling my jeans up, so I could examine my ankle. It looked to be only a mild sprain, but I couldn't be sure. I made a mental note to get Caroline to look at it when I got home – although she'd thought her wrist was broken when she sprained it, she had an aptitude for first aid on other people.

As I pushed my pant leg back down and slipped my shoe back on, I saw a flash of red in my peripheral vision and internally groaned, sitting back as Zoe's necklace began to feel like lead in my pocket.

"Hey, Dan." Keri chirped, swinging onto the bench beside me, wearing tight blue jeans and a floral top.

"Hi, Keri." I replied, trying to my best to keep my annoyance with her out of my voice – despite the fact that her personality drove me up the wall, I didn't want to be a complete arsehole to her. She was Zoe's sister – kind of – and I felt an obligation to her, even though I knew that if Zoe were here she'd argue that Keri didn't need looking after, that Keri was an agent and could defend herself, but apart from her brief victory at the Centenary party, I hadn't seen anything that proved that.

"You're thinking about her." Keri said softly and suddenly I could feel her gaze burning two holes into the side of my face.

"Hmm?" I asked, turning to look at her as I leaned my elbows on my knees.

"Whenever you're thinking about Zoe, you have this wistful look in your eye." Keri said softly. "I take it that's why you're so horrible to me all the time. Because I'm her replacement."

I looked away, my heart twisting painfully in my chest as I reached into my pocket and pulled out Zoe's necklace, trailing my fingertips across it gently.

"In some ways, you're like her and in others, you're not." I croaked, my throat constricting on each word.

"How do you mean?" Keri asked.

I turned to look at her, curling my hand around Zoe's necklace. "Your eyes. Your eyes are blue and hers are green, but you both have the same look – you both look at people from this point of complete honesty." Tears thick and hot in my throat, I looked away, clenching my fist hard around Zoe's necklace.

"Dan." Keri said softly, placing her hand on my arm. I turned to look at her, not really registering what was happening as she leaned towards me until her mouth was on mine, her hand gripping my arm as she kissed me gently. Even though I felt like I was betraying Zoe, I made my mouth move against Keri's, but I couldn't help noticing how different Keri's kiss was to Zoe's. When Zoe kissed, there was something unsure about it, something tentative about it, as if she was afraid that she'd do it wrong. There was none of that with Keri. The movements her mouth made were strong and sure and I had no doubt that she'd kissed – and been kissed – plenty of times.

Suddenly it really sank in what I was doing and who I was kissing and I pushed myself away from her, staring at her wide-eyed. Keri regarded me with a cool, collected blue gaze and suddenly I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take her presence, or how I suddenly found myself noticing the ridiculously low cut of her top. My stomach churned and I got up without a word, taking off and running as fast as I could, my injured ankle forgotten.

* * *

When I got home, Caroline was there, dressed in jeans and a light blue shirt as she sat on the couch, her knees drawn up to her chest as she stared blankly across the room from her spot on the couch.

"Hey, Care," I said, swinging myself over the back of the couch to sit beside her. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Caroline said, pushing blonde hair out of her eyes. "Just . . . I'm fine."

"How's your re-training going?" I asked her.

Caroline stiffened and tipped her head back, muttering, "Fine."

"Care . . ."

Caroline sighed, raking her hands through her hair. "Fine. Oscar's testing me tomorrow."

"_Testing _you?"

Caroline nodded. "If Ains' training hasn't worked well enough, Oscar's going to fire me."

I looked across at her, noticing the wide blue eyes and terrified expression and realised just how much being an agent meant to her, after such a small amount of time. Without even thinking about it, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to the side of her head. Caroline let out a breathy sigh, as if she was on the brink of tears, and leaned against me and I told her, "You'll do fine, Care."

"Everyone keeps saying that, but what if I don't? What if I'm not as amazing as everyone seems to think I am?"

"Who's everyone?" I asked.

"You. And Ains." Caroline whispered.

"That's kid's got good instincts." I told her. "You'll be fine."

As I released her, Caroline muttered, "He's the same age as you."

I laughed, flopping to the side on the couch, putting my arms over my eyes as my legs hung over the side.

"What's with you?" Caroline asked.

"Nothing," I muttered into my arm.

"Whatever," Caroline said, poking my arm. "I can see right through you, Daniel Morgan."

I groaned and muttered, "Keri kissed me."

"Oh my God." I removed my arm and looked up to see Caroline laughing, her blue eyes alight with amusement. I reached up and poked her in the side. "Thank you for your kindness, dear sister."

Caroline was still laughing. "You _kissed _Zoe's sister? The one that you hate?"

"Technically, she kissed me." I muttered.

* * *

**You guys have no idea how painful the first half of this chapter was for me to write. BTW, I'm loving all your reviews, guys! I smile each time anyone mentions wanting Caroline and Ains to get together - when I started this story, I never expected it to get so far so that people would bother to come up with a ship name! :)**


	15. Chapter 15

"Why am I fighting Camden, exactly?" I asked, glancing over at Oscar, Vanessa and Ains leaning against the wall. "I mean, Ains is taller and heavier."

"_Ains _taught you to fight." Oscar replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "And he'd probably go easy on you."

"I would not!" Ains objected.

"You would." Vanessa said, grinning. She looked like she wanted to say more, but she just grinned at him like there was some secret between them that I didn't know about.

"And besides, you and Ains know each other's moves too well." Oscar said. "Does that answer your question, Caroline?"

"Yes." I muttered, glancing back at Camden. Camden reached up and pushed his dark brown hair out of his eyes, his dark eyes glittering with eagerness as he said, "You ready, Caroline?"

"Bring it." I said, grinning, but before he could move, I moved forward, slamming my knee into his stomach. Camden groaned as I danced around him, kicking the back of his knees. Camden fell, but he twisted and grasped my wrist, pulling me down with him. I groaned and kicked away from him, my foot connecting with the hard muscle covering his side. Camden hissed through his teeth and rolled so his body weight held me down. I pushed myself up against his grip, twisting my arm and connecting my elbow with his jaw. Camden groaned and loosened his grip on me for a split second, but I heaved on his shoulders, forcing him back.

I jumped to my feet, watching Camden as he rose to his feet, his dark eyes suddenly wary. Without even realising it, he'd done exactly what Ains had said everyone I'd ever fight, except himself would do - he'd underestimated me. Pissed off, I lunged for him. He moved to grab me, but I used all my body weight to push him to the ground. Camden groaned as his back collided with the floor and I pinned him down as I best as I could, punching him in the face once before I shoved my arm into his throat.

"I'm done," Camden croaked, taking his hands from my arms and holding them next to his hand. I released him and stood, revelling in the adrenaline coursing through my veins as I helped Camden to his feet and turned to Vanessa, Oscar and Ains standing against the wall.

"Well done," Oscar said before he walked out. Vanessa grinned and bounded towards me, brown eyes alight with excitement.

"Does this mean I'm staying?" I asked as she enveloped me in a hug.

"For Oscar, it does." Camden said. I looked at him over Vanessa's shoulder, giving him an apologetic look. "Are you alright, Camden?"

"I'm fine," he said, smiling gently. "It's worth it if you're staying."

I grinned at him and pulled away, turning to Ains, taking in the pride glittering in his deep brown eyes. "I'm proud of you, Caroline Morgan."

I laughed as he walked towards me and hugged me, folding me in his strong arms. I smiled and rested my head against his shoulder, forcing myself not to shiver as his palm pressed against my lower back, his skin warm even through the layers of clothing I wore.

When I pulled away, I noticed Vanessa and Camden sitting on the floor close together, like Dan and Zoe used to once upon a time. Biting back a smirk, I sat on the floor against the wall and Ains sat beside me, his brown eyes glittering with happiness.

"So Vanessa," I said casually, "what's Australia like?"

"Oh, Care, you'd love it!" Vanessa said happily. "I lived on the Gold Coast – sun and surf every day that it wasn't raining."

I smiled. "Sounds great."

"Over the holidays, we should go back there. All four of us. It'd be great, Care!"

I laughed and Ains said, "Been there, done that."

"You've been to Australia?" I asked in astonishment, turning to face him.

"Oh yeah. I went there with Oscar when we went to go secure Vanessa."

"You say it like I'm a goddamn WMD or something." Vanessa muttered, her accent slurring her words slightly.

"Nah, you're too harmless for that." Ains said, grinning.

"So your parents are still in Australia," I said. "So who do you live with? Who looks after you?"

Vanessa glanced over at Ains, who grinned at her. "She lives with me and my foster parents. Like the annoying little sister I never had."

"Shut up," Vanessa said, smiling, although Camden threw Ains a puzzled look. "Foster home? Foster parents?"

Ains froze and then cast his eyes downward, pulling his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around his knees. He looked young as he said quietly, "Yeah. I'm . . . kind of . . . an orphan."

Camden sucked in a quick breath and I looked up at him, taking in his wide, dark eyes and parted lips. I turned away from Camden, back to Ains, who was sitting with a bowed head, as if he was trying to make himself as small as possible. I tentatively placed my hand on his arm, circling my thumb across the black material of his jacket. He looked up at me, his brown eyes sad, and I gave him a small, reassuring smile. Not really caring about the implications of it at this point in time, I wrapped my arm around his waist and rested my head against his shoulder.

"How long? Camden asked. "I mean, is it recent, or . . ." he trailed off, looking away.

"I don't remember my parents." Ains said quietly. "So no, it's not recent. Not recent in the slightest."

"I'm sorry." Camden said quietly.

"Don't be." Ains said sharply, looking up at him. "It's not your fault and you shouldn't be apologising. So don't."


	16. Chapter 16

**Dan**

"So how'd your test go?" I asked as Caroline walked in, her blonde hair pulled up into a bun at the crown of her head. Caroline gave me a small, tired grin before she flopped herself down on the couch beside me. "Well, I'm not unemployed, so that's a bonus."

"Nice. Was your boyfriend impressed?" I asked, smirking.

Caroline hissed softly through her teeth. "He's not my boyfriend."

"Does he know that?" I asked. Caroline rolled her eyes and didn't comment. I shrugged and got up, stretching out my idle-for-too-long muscles. "Well, I'm going to go upstairs to be depressed. I'll see you later, Care."

"Make good choices." Caroline said after me.

"If you keep quoting _Pitch Perfect_, I'm going to take that movie off you!" I called down to her.

"You're not my father, you arsehole!" Caroline shouted.

"Thank God for that!" I yelled, closing my door. I turned my iPod on, listening as 'All of the Stars' by Ed Sheeran started playing. I fell onto my bed on my back; putting my hands behind my head and closing my eyes, letting the music wash over me. Ten songs later, 'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol was playing when my door swung open and Caroline was standing in the doorway, her hair spilling down her shoulders and blown back, as if she'd run up the stairs in a hurry. Her blue eyes were wide with worry and panic and I switched the music off, sitting up. "Caroline? What's wrong?"

"Have you seen the news?" Caroline asked, crossing the room to my TV. I watched, my heart sinking, as she switched it on and instantly an image of a plane crash filled the screen. My breath hitched in my throat as I saw that it was a flight from the most recent country that Zoe'd been looking for her sisters in. Zoe called me each time she went to a new country, just so that I knew that she was safe and so I'd know roughly where to look if she went missing.

"Dan – " Caroline started.

"Zoe!" I shouted, scrambling to grab my phone. I quickly dialled Zoe's number, holding the phone to my ear. I listened to it ring, over and over, until finally, it went to voice mail. Numb with horror, I hung up and looked at Caroline. I couldn't bring myself to say anything – I just re-dialed Zoe's number. I listened to it ring once, twice, three times and then I heard a voice on the other end, "_Hello?"_

"Zoe?" I asked, a little breathless.

"_Dan? Are you alright?"_

"I, uh . . . yeah. Have you seen the news?"

"_The news?"_ There was a pause and I heard a television being turned on in the background and then I heard Zoe gasp. "_Oh my God."_

"Zoe, where are you?" I asked desperately.

"_Norway. I'm sorry, Dan, I'm so sorry. I had jet lag when I got here – it was basically the middle of the night for me and I guess it just slipped my mind."_

"Oh, thank God." I breathed, running a hand through my hair.

I could practically imagine Zoe's sheepish smile. _"I'm sorry, Dan."_

"I know. I know you are. I'll let go get back to sleeping then."

"_I love you."_ Zoe muttered, but before I could come up with a reply, she hung up. I stared at the phone in my hand, dumbfounded, until Caroline asked, "Is she okay?"

I nodded, setting the phone aside. "Yeah. She's nowhere near there, Care – she's in Norway."

"Thank God."

I stared at her. "Thank God? You hate Zoe."

"No, I hate what she did. There's a difference."

"Right." I said, looking away. Caroline sat down beside me, running her hand through her hair.

"Are you alright?" I asked her.

Caroline open her mouth to say something, but then she closed it and shook her head. "No. Do you . . . Do you regret falling in love with Zoe?"

I looked over at her and sighed. "No."

"No?"

"No. I don't." I told her. "I loved Zoe. I still do. And I do not regret a single second of it because before I met her I was a stubborn blonde idiot who refused to trust anyone."

"You weren't an idiot." Caroline said gently, but it sounded like she was trying to console me, which pissed me off a little bit. I didn't appreciate being coddled – especially by my kid sister.

"I'm not your kid sister." Caroline said darkly and I realised, with a start, that I'd spoken aloud.

"Care – " I started, but Caroline got up, her expression hardening. Cutting herself off.

As she moved to walk out the door, I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against the headboard. "Do you do this to everyone, or just me?"

"Do what?" Caroline asked incredulously, turning to face me and crossing her arms over her chest and glowering at me.

"Shut down. Cut people off. Push them away." I replied.

"I do it to stop myself from getting hurt." Caroline said. "You did it too, once upon a time."

"Yeah. _Used _to." I said.

"Oh, look at yourself, Dan!" Caroline cried. "You're in love with a girl who left you! Not only dumped you, but left you! You can't possibly tell me you don't regret falling for her!"

In bringing Zoe up, Caroline had crossed a line and she and I both knew it.

"I would be careful if I was you, Caroline Morgan," I told her darkly. "One day, you will realise that cutting yourself saves you more from love than it does from pain. I just hope, for your sake, that you realise that before everyone you love gives up on you."

Caroline opened her mouth to say something, but the sound of a slamming door and a harsh male voice yelling, "Caroline and Daniel Morgan! Get down here now!"

Caroline leaned against the doorframe, sighing. "Daddy's home."

* * *

**About this chapter - as I was writing this, I knew I needed Dan to call Zoe for reason and as I was thinking about it, that's when I heard about MH17, and I have no idea where it came from, but all of a sudden I got this really strong urge to acknowledge it in some way, so it kind of evolved into this. This chapter was kind of a release for me to get rid of pent-up emotions, but it is kind of important in the grand scheme of things - you'll see why a bit later.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Caroline**

Carefully, I walked downstairs, Dan walking a step in front of me. I noticed the tight set of his shoulders, the cautious way he walked. I hoped that Mum had come home too in the time that Dan and I were upstairs, but when Dan and I were standing in the living room, Dad was the only one there.

Angrily, Dad gestured to the TV that I'd left going in my rush to go and tell Dan about the plane crash. It had changed to cartoons and I watched the brightly coloured animated characters move around the screen.

"How many times I have I told you not to leave the TV going?" Dad hissed, his grey-blue eyes bright with anger.

Dan and I stayed silent.

"Who did it?" Dad snarled.

I glanced across at Dan, who met my gaze with one that was impossible to read. I expected him to sell me out, and I opened my mouth to speak, but Dan cut me off.

"I did, Dad." Dan said, practically cringing away from Dad. I couldn't understand why. This was _Dan_, for God's sake. Dan, who'd defended me and Zoe against his own girlfriend's evil doppelganger. I stared at him, puzzled, until I saw Dad turn to Dan and strike him across the face. Dan's hand flew to his cheek and he took a step back.

I felt anger flare up inside me, fueled by the fire of my earlier disagreement with Dan, and I moved forward, fury turning my vision red. I shoved Dad back, watching him stumble back and fall over the couch. I moved to jump over it, to punch him in the face, but arms grabbed me from behind, hauling me away. Dimly registering that Dan was the only person who could have grabbed me, I twisted and writhed in his grasp, managing to get an arm free. I elbowed Dan in the face, listening to him grunt in pain, his grip loosening. I shoved him away and considered trying to get a punch into Dad before Dan grabbed me again, but I doubted I'd get that far, so I decided against it. Instead, I took off in the other direction, out the front door and across the street. I dimly heard footsteps behind me and I started running faster, swinging myself over a fence. I landed easily on the other side, but then I heard heavy footsteps behind me and then a heavy body collided with my own, shoving me to the ground.

I spun underneath the weight holding me down, kicking and kneeing and punching and elbowing and writhing to try and get myself free. My vision was still tinted red with fury and I barely registered that it was my brother holding me down.

"Let me go . . . you bastard," I hissed through my teeth.

"Calm down, Caroline." Dan told me, pinning my arms to my sides.

"No."

Dan's eyes widened and he pulled out something that looked like a pencil. "Do you think you could come here? I have a little bit of a situation." Pause. "A complicated situation." Another pause. "Thanks, Tom."

Then he put the communicator away and he dug into my jacket pocket. He pulled out my phone and I made a soft snarling sound through my teeth, writhing as he pushed me down and held the phone to his ear. I tuned out the entire conversation until he placed the phone back in my pocket and I went back to trying to get free, struggling and wriggling and squirmung, while he just used his superior height and weight to hold me down.

"What is going on with you?" Dan breathed. I just glared up at him, some distant part of me wondering why he hadn't looked the least bit surprised when Dad hit him. Maybe he was just so used to getting hit as an agent that it didn't fase him as much it should, being hit by his own father.

"Bastard," I hissed up at Dan, slightly unsure of who I was referring to - my twin brother or my father.

"Yeah, you mentioned that," Dan muttered, looking around desperately. I wondered what he was looking for until I heard someone yell his name and his head snapped to the side to look at the four approaching figures. Using his distraction to my advantage, I pulled my legs up and kicked him off me, immediately on my feet. I'd taken roughly three steps before Dan was on his feet again, grabbing me around the waist. I struggled against him and he threw the figures a desperate look, who I could see now were Vanessa, Ains, a boy only a little taller than Vanessa and a darker-skinned girl who I didn't recognise. Vanessa mpved forward, grasping my arm tightly. Dan grabbed my other arm and together, they pushed me to my knees, holding my arms uncomfortably behind my back.

"What's wrong with her?" The darker-skinned girl asked.

Dan shrugged, throwing me a concerned look. I kept my gaze off him, studying the two unknown teens as he said, "I've no idea, Aneisha. She and Dad got into a fight and she won't calm down."

Ains knelt down in front of me, his fathomless brown eyes seeming to stare into my soul. It made me uncomfortable.

"What is going on with you?" Ains whispered, reaching out and placing his hand on my cheek. I shivered and pushed myself forward as much as I could in Dan and Vanessa's grasp, wincing at the pain that shot up my arms and pressing my mouth against Ains'. I felt him gasp in surprise and the grasp on my arms loosened slightly. I yanked my arms free and pulled my knees up, kicking Ains away from me.

Before I had even made it to my feet, I was tackled to the ground again, my arms held behind me so tightly that it hurt to move them. Ains had fallen onto his back when I kicked him and he was leaning back on his hands now, slightly breathless, as he watched me with those dark eyes of his.

"Tom," Dan said desperately. The boy who had been standing next to Aneisha, stealing curious looks at Vanessa, snapped out of his haze and moved towards me. I glared at him darkly, but he paid no attention to me as he pulled a spy pod and scanned my body slowly with it. When he was done, he sighed, putting it away and rocking back on his heels.

"Well?" Aneisha asked, sounding slightly irritated.

"I didn't pick up anything abnormal, except for a strange chip in her neck. I can't get a read on what it is here. We need to take her to HQ." Tom said, pulling out something that looked like a small gun.

"What's that?" Vanessa asked, her voice shrill and thick with her accent.

"It'll knock her out." Tom explained. "We can't take her anywhere with her like this."

Dan nodded and I struggled against him, trying to get myself free. Carefully, Dan and Vanessa pushed me into the ground, Vanessa's nimble hands on my back as Dan gripped my arms. I whimpered, struggling as Dan and Vanessa kept me down while another set of hands brushed my hair and the collar of my jacket away from the right side of my neck. I looked around desperately, trying to see anything but my own denim-clad knees and the grass and saw Tom's dark brown eyes before I felt metal pressed against my skin. Suddenly my body felt heavy and I let my eyelids droop as my world became enveloped in darkness.

* * *

**I swear, I'm not doing another abuse fic - I don't think I could handle doing another one. So, I just thought I'd clear that up.**


	18. Chapter 18

**You guys have no idea how excited I am to _finally _be sharing this chapter with you - when I wrote this, roughly two weeks ago, I was so excited at the prospect of being able to get into Ains' head. Anyway, I'll let you read this now. Enjoy!**

* * *

**Ains**

I watched as Caroline's body slowly relaxed and slowly, Tom moved away from her and then Nessa removed her hands from her back. Slowly and with worried blue eyes that were the same sapphire blue as Caroline's, Dan took his hands from Caroline's arms, carefully easing her into the ground.

Giving Dan a cautious look - I wasn't sure how protective Dan was of Caroline when it came to boys - I moved towards Caroline, wrapping my arm around her legs and hauling her over my shoulder. I got to my feet slowly, slightly overbalanced with the extra weight on my right, and looked around at the others. "Where are we going now?"

"St Heart's High School." Tom replied. "All my stuff's there."

I would have preferred for us to go to St Hope's because that's where all _my_ stuff was, but I didn't argue, simply motining for Dan, Tom and Aneisha to lead the way.

"We should probably call Cam." Nessa said. I'd noticed that she called him that sometimes - and that out of everyone at St Hope's, she was the only one who called him that.

"Well, you have his number." I told her. Nessa rolled her eyes and pulled her phone out of her pocket, quickly typing in a number and holding the phone to her ear, as if she had Camden's number memorised. She probably did.

"Shut up." Nessa muttered to me as she waited Camden to pick up.

"I didn't say anything." I told her, grinning.

"So don't." Nessa said, and then Camden picked up and her voice became ridiculously shrill and happy and I tuned her out.

". . . should call Keri in, too." Tom was saying.

Even though the three agents were walking in front of us, I knew Aneisha was grinning as Dan said, "_Hell_, no."

"What is your problem with her? I mean, you've never liked her because of . . . uh, you know, but in the past week you haven't been able to even look at her. So what's the big issue?"

Nessa was grinning as she finished up her conversation with Camden, pushing her phone into the pocket in her jeans. "Cam's going to meet us there."

Aneisha and Tom practically ignored her, both looking interested in Dan's obvious discomfort, who snapped, "Just leave it, alright?"

"She kissed him." Nessa said quietly.

Abruptly, Dan turned on her, his blue eyes blazing. I recalled Caroline's quick temper that I had seen in multiple training sessions, when I pushed her too far. Quick tempers must run in the family.

"How do _you_ know that?" Dan asked, carefully stepping backwards, so that he could talk to Nessa and walk at the same time.

"Oh my _God_," Aneisha said, grinning at Tom. Dan paid no attention to them.

"I bullied Caroline into telling me." Nessa replied.

Dan muttered something I'd rather not repeat as we turned into St Heart's, and I shifted Caroline on my shoulder. Dan's expression shifted to concern for his sister and with a pang, I wished I had someone of the same blood to have my back like Dan had Care's. "How is she?"

With my left arm, I reached behind me and ran my finger across Caroline's cheek. She didn't stir. I dropped my arm and turned back to Dan. "Unconscious."

Tom snorted. "Obviously."

"Who's that?" Aneisha asked, pointing to a tall, teenager leaning against the wall with messy mop of dark curls.

"Camden. Caroline's last teammate."

"Are they a thing?" Aneisha asked. "They'd be cute together."

Dan scoffed. "Not likely."

"You sound like Keri." Tom told Aneisha.

"Shut up," Aneisha told him, aiming a kick at his ankles, which he dodged.

"What happened?" Camden asked as he fell into step with me and Nessa as we passed him on our way into tye school.

"I'm not entirely sure." I told him. "Dan rang me on Caroline's phone, telling me that Caroline was having some kind of fit and I needed to get to her. Vanessa caught me on my way out and tagged along."

"And did she?" Camden asked, "Did she have some kind of fit?"

"Well, Dan said she and her dad got in a fight and then she kind of wouldn't calm down. It was almost as if she _couldn't _calm down." I said.

Camden looked thoughtful, but he didn't say anything.

"What?" I asked him as we paused outside the caretaker's cupboard.

Camden shook his head. "Not here. I'll tell you later."

* * *

I looked around the spy base situated underneath St Heart's High School, shifting Caroline on my shoulder. She was easily the lightest person I'd ever carried - she was small and slim.

"What's going on?" A man asked, emerging. He had dark, curly hair combed back and a short beard, along with kind blue eyes. He gestured to me, Nessa and Camden. "Who are they?"

"They're part of Caroline's team, Frank." Dan replied.

"Yes, but what are they doing here?" Frank asked.

"Caroline's gone insane." Nessa said.

Frank sighed. "Put her in the next room, then."

Aneisha nodded and gestured for us to follow her. Obediently, Nessa, Camden and I followed her into the next room, which looked like an infirmary.

"Probably be a good idea to tie her down." Camden said, his dark eyes flickering nervously between me and Nessa as I set Caroline down on one of the beds.

"And why," I asked, "would we do that?"

Camden looked at me like I'd asked a stupid question. "Are you serious? Ains, I didn't see her, but it was obviously pretty bad if you had _sedate_ her, for God's sake."

"Cam's right." Nessa said, looking slightly uneasy with agreeing with Camden on this.

"Of course _you_ would say that." I muttered. Then I sighed. "Go and find something, then."

Camden nodded and he and Nessa walked out, leaving me alone with Caroline. Within two minutes, Dan walked in with Nessa and Camden trailing in behind him, blue eyes blazing. "What's this about tying up my sister?"

I swallowed and rose to my feet.


	19. Chapter 19

**Ains**

"You saw how she was before." I said. "We could barely keep her down then. Who's to say we'll be able to when the sedative wears off?"

"Who's to say we'll have to?" Dan asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Who's to say we won't?" I asked. Then I sighed. "Look, I don't want to hurt her or take advantage of her or anything. I just want to keep her held down in case she wakes up pissed off."

Dan held my gaze for a moment before he sighed, looking over his shoulder at Camden. "Go and ask Frank for some binds. He'll know what you're talking about. Go. Now. Both of you." He clicked his fingers and Camden and Nessa hurried out. Dan sighed and raked a hand through his hair, leaning against the doorframe. As he cast his eyes downward, I noticed a faint bruise developing on his cheek and that his eyes looked as if he were drowning in his own guilt.

"What's with you?" I asked, leaning against Caroline's bed and folding my arms over my chest.

"I feel like it's my fault. She and I had a . . . disagreement before Dad even got home. If that hadn't happened, maybe it wouldn't have been as bad as it was and we wouldn't have had to sedate her."

"What'd you disagree on? Who's turn it is to do the dishes?"

Dan laughed bitterly, shaking his head. "No. Care and I have never argued about stuff like that, even when we were kids. We've only ever argued about the serious stuff. This was about . . . her. Caroline always pushes away the people who care about her, just to save herself from pain."

"And you know this because . . . ?"

"I've seen it." Dan replied. He looked away, his eyes distant. "And I used to do the same thing."

"I thought I was the only one who noticed." I said quietly, twisting and pushing Caroline's hair back so that it curled around her right ear. I looked at Dan. "Past tense?"

"I used to push people away, before I met my ex-girlfriend. Zoe. Care seems to be under the impression that I should regret her. That I should regret falling in love with her."

"And you don't?"

"Can't bring myself to. She made me a better person and even if I can't be with her right now, the person I became with her was worth being, until she finds her way back."

I wasn't quite sure what to say to that. I lapsed into silence, looking over at Caroline, studying the way her blonde hair framed her soft, delicate features. I'd admitted it to myself a long time ago that I liked her - this girl who seemed to possess too much anger for someone so small, so beautiful, and whose gentle features contrasted completely with her harsh personality.

"I know how you feel about her." Dan said quietly. "I've seen how you look at her."

I looked over at him. "Are you going to kick my arse?"

Dan laughed. "No. Just . . . be careful with her, alright? She's more fragile than she looks."

"She's stronger than she looks, too." I said, reaching out and trailing my fingertips across her cheek. As I took them away, Camden and Nessa walked in, carrying what looked like black contraints. Dan slipped out the room and I stepped back as Camden and Nessa started strapping Caroline to the bed. When they were done, they took a step back and Nessa walked out, while Camden seated himself on one of the nearby beds.

"You said Caroline and her dad had a fight." Camden started.

"Yeah. So?"

"What if it wasn't a verbal fight?" Camden asked. I immediately glanced at Caroline. She looked completely unharmed and immediately, I dismissed the idea of her father being abusive. I'd met her father once before. Sure, the guy seemed to be a bit hardcore, but he wasn't a bad person. He wouldn't beat his own children. Or maybe that was just my tendency to see the best in people making me see goodness that didn't exist.

I shook my head. "It can't've been. Caroline and Dan's dad . . . He wouldn't, Camden. I know that much."

"Caroline's fine, but have you seen Dan's face? He's got a bruise developing on his cheek."

"He's an agent. We get hit all the time."

"_In the face_? Ains, for five seconds, _think_. We all know how loyal Care is." Camden said.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "What _exactly_ are you implying, Camden?"

"You know what." Camden retorted. "You just don't want to think about it."

I clenched my jaw. "I don't know what to think."

Camden sighed. "Look, part of our job is to read people's expressions, read their actions, read what they're going to do. I'm just telling you what I see."

I reached up and raked my fingers through my short hair, my fingernails scraping slightly against my scalp. I glanced over at Caroline, watching as suddenly, she twisted her head to the side and made a soft moaning noise. I stiffened as Caroline's eyes opened and she threw herself up against her binds. She grunted as her body flopped back onto the bed, her blue eyes glaring up at me.

"Caroline - " I started.

"You," she hissed, her naturally soft feminine voice filled with malice, "you _bastard_."

Camden clapped his hand down on my shoulder and, my arms still crossed over my chest, I looked over at him.

"Why don't you go see if Tom needs a hand?" Camden suggested. I glanced over at Caroline, who glowered back at me. I looked at Camden and reluctantly nodded, letting my arms drop to my sides as I looked over at Caroline, laying back against the hard bed.

"Sit tight, Care," I told her, giving her a gentle smile.

Caroline scowled, lifting her hands as much as her bonds would allow. "Well I can't exactly go anywhere, can I?"

"Touché." I said, turning and walking out of the room, listening to the door shut behind me.


	20. Chapter 20

When I walked into the main part of the St Heart's team's HQ, Tom, Aneisha and Frank brushed past me, obviously in a hurry. I seemed to have come in halfway through a conversation, because Oscar, who appeared to have just arrived, was saying, "So what's happening with - " Oscar broke off, staring between the gap of mine and Nessa's shoulders, at Dan. "You're Caroline's brother."

"_Twin_ brother," Dan corrected, as if it made that big of a difference.

Oscar rolled his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest. "So what's happening with Caroline?"

"She's somehow managed to get a chip into her neck that merges love and anger and basically turns her into a raging bitch." Camden said flatly.

"You have such a _lovely_ way of putting things, Augur." Nessa said, poking him in the side. Camden jumped off the table and pulled Nessa down with him, wrapping his arms tight around her waist. I could hear Nessa squeal and, laughing, I turned to Oscar. He looked amused at Camden's antics and I saw a flash of blonde.

"Oscar Cole, right?" Dan asked, crossing his legs.

Before Oscar could answer, Frank walked out, rubbing his hands. He looked surprised, but he grinned when he saw Oscar. He walked over and hugged Oscar and as my mentor returned it, I threw Dan a confused glance, who shrugged at me.

"Uh . . . what the hell?" Camden asked as he set Nessa down and the two of them moved to lean against the table.

"Frank was my mentor," Oscar explained, moving towards us, "when I was in MI High. At St Hope's."

"No. Way." Nessa said, as if it was a highly unlikely thing that Oscar would be placed in the same high school he'd been placed for MI High.

"Frank, how's Care?" Dan asked impatiently.

"She's fine. We got it out, no problems." Frank said, smiling kindly. It occurred to me that if I could pick who my father was, I'd pick this guy - he seemed to be kind and nurturing, but not too kind that he could be considered soft. I realised that Dan probably had the same opinion.

"Can I see her?" I asked.

Frank nodded and gestured to the door and I silently slipped off the table and walked over to the door, silently pushing it open and walking down the corridor until I came to the infirmary. I pushed the door open and walked inside, closing the door silently so that I wouldn't wake Caroline. Immediately, I recognised her lithe little form, her blonde hair forming a halo around her head. I took a few tentative steps toward her until suddenly I was standing at her bedside, brushing her hair off her collarbone, examining the bandage on the side of her neck.

Suddenly Caroline made a loud gasping noise, drawing air in quickly as her eyes flew open.

"Caroline." I said, watching her as she pulled herself up - Frank and Oscar must have taken her bonds off.

"Ains," she breathed. She made a soft hissing noise through her teeth and lifted her hand to the side of her neck, her eyes meeting mine. "What happened?"

"KORPS obviously got a chip into your neck somehow - it exposed your most powerful emotions and melded them together, clouding your judgement but making you stronger. In your case, it was anger and . . . Love." I fumbled on the 'L' word and she knew it - Care threw me an odd look at my hesitation and I looked away. I didn't need her knowing of my weakness towards her.

"Love . . ." Care mumbled, her voice soft. Suddenly her eyes widened and she flung herself off the bed, shouting, "Dan!"

"Care - " I started as she moved towards the door. Caroline turned to face me, her expression gentle. "Ains. Thank you for . . ." she trailed off and smiled gently, her azure eyes swimming in gratitude. "Thank you."

"You were in trouble. I wanted to help you."

Care smiled. "I'm sorry I kissed you."

I chuckled. "It's no problem, really. Of all the ways I've been brought down, that one's definitely the most memorable. Definitely my favourite. You used my training well, Care. You did the thing I least expected you to do to win you the fight."

Caroline laughed and she walked towards me, reaching up and wrapping her arms around my neck. I smiled and wrapped my arms around her petite waist, resting my head on her shoulder. I could feel the heat from her body against own, even through the thick, durable material of our MI9 uniforms, and I fought the urge to sigh into her hair as she rested her head against my collarbone, burying her nose in the collar of my jacket. After an embrace that lasted slightly longer than was necessary, I let my hands drop back to my sides and Caroline stepped back. "Is should probably . . . go see . . . my brother."

I nodded and watched her leave, watching the way her hips swayed in time with her steps. I brought my eyes back to her face as she opened the door and smiled at me over her shoulder, before she slipped out and the door closed behind her. I decided that I would have to get over this ridiculous crush I had on her - our most recent conversation had just proved that. If she had any desire to be with me, she wouldn't have apologised for kissing me. I was one hundred precent sure of it now - this was no more than some ridiculous one-sided crush on my behalf and I was going to have to get over it, because she clearly wasn't interested.


	21. Chapter 21

**Caroline**

So how many times has he hit you?" I asked, leaning against the doorway and folding my arms over my chest.

Dan turned to face me, his blue eyes anxious. "That was only the second time, Care. I swear to God."

"But what about Mum?" I asked. "God, Dan; what about _me_? What if he - " I broke off, tears stinging at my eyes. I looked away so that Dan wouldn't see me cry, but it was too late. He flung himself off the table he was sitting on and took my face in his hands, brushing my tears away with his thumbs. "He wouldn't, Care. He woudn't dare."

"How would you know that, Dan?" I hissed angrily. "Dan, he's our father! Father's don't hit their own children."

"And we're teenagers." Dan said, folding his arms over his chest. "We're not supposed to agents, but yet we still are."

"That's different," I said stiffly.

Dan gave me an incredulous look. "How, Caroline? _How_ is that any - "

"We're doing good, Dan. We're hitting people who deserve to be hit," I hissed angrily. I suddenly had the urge to punch him, but I held myself back and just glared at him. Dan looked away and sighed, ducking his head. I felt my expression soften without my consent and Dan slowly raised his head, giving me a small smile. He reached out and tucked my hair behind my ear and I whimpered softly, looking away. As much as the idea of Dad turning on me terrified me, I hated the fact that it was Dan who copped it and not me. He was goung through enough as it was. He didn't need this on top of it.

I felt fingers grip my chin and then Dan's voice, gentle and low; "Care, look at me."

I made myself look at him and he offered me a small smile that was clearly supposed to reassure me, but all it truly did was make me feel even more like crap.

"Care, I promise you that if he does it again, we're out of that house." Dan said, his blue eyes intense and sincere.

"And what if he hits me?" I asked.

Dan's brow furrowed as if the question I'd just asked was a stupid one, as if the anwser to it was staring me right in the face. After some time, he seemed to realise that I was serious and he sighed. "Care, if he ever hurt you, we'd be out of that house faster than he could blink."

I nodded, looking down as tears stung at my eyes.

"Come here." Dan muttered, folding me into his arms. He felt warm and he felt safe, just as he always had, and I rested my head against his shoulder, squeezing my eyes shut and feeling one single tear escape.

"I'll always protect you, Caroline." Dan told me, running his hand up and down my back. "Okay?"

I nodded against his shoulder and I hiccupped from the effort of keeping my tears bottled up.

"Always the way, baby sister." Dan said, laughing. I pulled away from him and glared up at him. "I'm not your baby sister."

"You're my younger sister." Dan pointed out.

"By a few minutes." I replied, rolling my eyes. "It's hardly a large age gap, Dan."

Dan smiled, pressing a kiss to my forehead. "I don't care how big the gap is, Care. You're my little sister and that's that."

"Fine. But do me a favour?"

Dan sighed melodramatically. "What?"

"Don't treat me like I'm your little sister, Dan. I'm not a little girl anymore. I could kick your arse if really wanted to." I told him, subtly daring him to challenge me. I wanted to know if I could take him down when he wasn't expectin it, or whether he was just that good that he'd be able to stop me.

Dan answered my wishes as if they were his own, quirking an eyebrow in almost disbelief. Once upon a time, that disblief would have offended me, but not anymore. Now I knew how to use that disbelief, that underestimation, to my advantage. "Is that so?"

"Yeah." I told him, smiling.

Before he had even realised that I was doing it, I slammed my foot into his shin. Dan grunted as his leg gave way beneath him, his tall body, packed with muscle, came crashing to the ground. Laughing, I took a few steps back as I heard shouts behind me. I turned and found Vanessa and Camden walking in the door, Vanessa practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. I laughed as she hugged me tightly before she let me go, her smile bright. "Care, that was amazing!"

"It wasn't actually that hard," I told her, ignoring Dan's grunt of disagreement as he got to his feet behind me. Surprisingly, Camden hugged me aswell and murmured in my ear, "You did good, Care."

"Thanks." I replied and as I stepped out of his embrace, not all that different to the way Dan held me, which was completely different to the way Ains held me, I caught sight of Ains slipping in through the door. His gaze caught mine for a split second and I gave him a small smile, hoping that my eyes didn't betray the worry I felt for my brother and that my tears had dried on my cheeks. From the way his gentle eyes looked at me, I knew I had no such luck.

A dull ache flared in the side of my neck and I made a stifled moan, reaching up and touching the bandage on the side of my neck. It suddenly occured to me what had actually happened, that I'd had a chip in my neck and Frank and Oscar had cut it out and that there'd be an everlasting mark on my neck from this ordeal.

The pressure of my hand to my bandage, combined with this realisation, seemed to intensfy the pain in my neck and I whimpered softly. Suddenly Oscar walked in, carrying a glass of water in one hand and a box of painkillers in the other. He gave me a gentle smile as he passed them to me and I smiled gratefully, popping a painkiller into my mouth and then washing it down with the water.


	22. Chapter 22

"So have you seen your dad at all, since . . . you know." Flushing, Vanessa looked away from me, her deep brown eyes refusing to meet mine.

"No," I said. As I spoke, I smiled gently at her, leaning back on my hands. I coud feel Ains' eyes on the side of my face and I hoped that it wasn't showing on my face, how much Dad's actions worried me. It had been almost a week since we'd found the chip in my neck and even though it no longer hurt, it was still healing, ver slowly, so Oscar was making me keep it bandaged until it had healed. Ains and Tom had been trading the chip back of forth between our team and Dan's, the both of them trying to make sense of the circuitry and whole load of other more technical stuff and I wasn't inclined to even try to understand.

"I think he'd avioding us," I said. Vanessa gave me a small sympathetic smile and I suddenly remembered that she'd left her family back in Australia. "Do you miss our family, Ness?"

Vanessa smiled. "Yeah. I miss my brother. And my parents. And my ex."

"Your ex?" Camden sounded choked, his voice slightly high-pitched. I repressed a smile, glancing across at Ains knowingly. I just didn't get why they didn't just admit that they liked each other - it would save everyone a lot of time. Even Oscar, who was such a closed book that we barely had any interaction with him when we weren't on a mission, seemed a little frustrated with them. Or maybe he was just frustrated with Ains and I. That would make sense - then I wouldn't be the only one frustrated. Although we were still technically friends, we'd kissed. Friends didn't kiss. And even if they did, that kiss wouldn't much more than a hug. If it was just a friendly kiss, it wouldn't be all that I could think about. And I definitely wouldn't have caught Ains staring at me when he thought I wasn't paying attention.

Vanessa looked surprised, as if the fact that she left an ex behind being that only thing that Camden got out of her statement shocked her. "Uh, yeah. We were best friends and then we started dating, but we broke up not lng before I moved here."

"Because you were moving here?" Camden asked quietly.

Vanessa shook her head. "No, it turned out that he was a controlling bastard when it came to his girlfriends, so I dumped him on his arse. Literally."

I laughed, but Camden looked thoughtful. "But . . . you said you miss him."

"We were best friends for years. Of course I miss him." Vanessa replied. I glanced over at Ains, smiling. Those two were ridiculously cute when they weren't being infuriatingly frustrating.

Vanessa looked around. "We shoud play truth or dare."

Ains looked uncomfortable. "Is this really a good idea?"

"This game's fun," Camden said, grinning devilishly. He turned to me. "You game, Care?"

"I'm game." I told him, glancing around. I reached forward and tapped Ains' ankle with the toe of my boot. "Come on, _Ainsworth_. You're not scared, are you?"

"Of two girls? _Hell_ no. I'm scared of what Camden's going to make me do." Ains replied, but he leaned forward, brown eyes bright with challenge. I grinned across at him, looking across at Vanessa, waiting for her to start. She grinned and said, "Caroline. Truth or dare?"

"Truth," I said. I wanted to see what kind of dares these two would set before I willingly walked into one - I didn't want to do something like strip naked and run down the street or anything like that.

"Who do you like?"

My gaze flickered over to Ains of their own accord before moving back to Vanessa. "Nobody."

"You can't lie in this game," Camden said.

"I'm not lying!" I cried.

"Oh, so you don't like . . . Oh, I don't know, Ains?"

I made sure I wasn't lookung at him when I answered, but I couldn't miss the flicker of hurt that passed across his features when I replied, "No."

"Why not?" Camden asked, looking intrigued. I was tempted to remind him that truth meant one question, not twenty, but that would tip things in his and Vanessa's favour, so I said, "Because he's harmless."

Camden grinned at Vanessa and started to sa something, but Ains interuptted him. "Harmless?"

I turned to look at him. "Well, no, not harmless, but . . ."

"I'll give you harmless," Ains muttered, abruptly leaning forward towards me. Before I could even register what was happening, his mouth was pressed against mine, soft and warm and insistent. Before I could make myself react in any way, he pulled away, settling back in his original spot with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. The whole thing couldn't have lasted much more than thirty seconds, but I could feel Camden and Vanessa's eyes on us, wide as dinner plates as I stared at Ains, my chest heaving in surprise.

"What was that for?" I asked, still staring at him.

"Payback," Ains replied. Obviously, I knew what he was talking about - he was talking about the way I'd kissed him when I'd been under the influence of my own actions, but in my defense, I'd had no control over my own actions then. And unless he was drunk, which he didn't appear to be, he was utterly and completely in control of his own actions.

Ains and I stared at each other, unwilling to break our gaze, until he looked away, looking at Vanessa and Camden expectantly. "Well? Let's get on with it, then."

Camden cleared his throat. "Okay, your turn, Care. Take your pick."

"Ains," I said, a little unsure of where this was going, even as I said it. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare." He replied, challenge glinting in his eyes.

"I dare you . . ." I trailed off, suddenly unsure of myself. No one could deny that I'd grown and matured since I'd become an agent. I'd gone from being the scared little girl, hiding behind my brother's shadow, to someone powerful, someone strong. Suddenly the idea of telling Ains to do something insignificant made me feel stupid. I was frustrated with Ains and I. So why didn't I change what we currently were into what I wanted us to be?

The words were out of my mouth before I had even made the conscious decision to say them.

"I dare you . . . to kiss me."

* * *

**I'll leave you with that. God, I'm evil. **


	23. Chapter 23

Ains' lips parted, blinking at me as if he was trying to decipher whether or not I was joking. I was conscious, somewhere, of Camden and Vanessa's presence, the pair of them holding their breath as they waited to see how this would unfold.

Ains was still staring at me, his brown eyes studying my features carefully. I stared back, making sufe that my inner contemplation didn't show on my face - that I wasn't really daring Ains to kiss me, I was daring myself to let my guard down and be with someone, something that I'd found difficult to imagine myself doing after watching Dan go through his rough breakup with Zoe. But as Ains watched me, I realised that even if this with Ains ended in heartbreak, I would rather feel hur afterwards than be fine and having it never happen at all.

"You're serious," Ains said finally, his eyebrows raised.

"Good observation skills," I told him, arching one eyebrow. The corner of Ains' mouth twitched, curling into a half smile as he rose a little, leaning forward towards. He flattened his palm against the floor, next to my knee, and leaned all his weight on it as he neared me. I felt my breath hitch in my throat at his close proximity - I could smell him, soap and sweat and safety - but I met his gaze as he tilted his head to the side and kissed me gently. As I let my eyes drift shut, I realised that there was sonething different about this kiss; he was slow and slightly hesitant with me, his mouth soft against mine. As I kissed him back, I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer, running my fingers through his soft brown hair as the kiss intensified.

We only pulled away because Camden and Vanessa were there, but when we looked, they were gone.

I felt myself smile, and then Ains brushed my hair out my eyes, his fingertips tracing the shape of my jaw lightly.

"As good as when you kissed me?" Ains asked as I turned to look at him. I smiled up at him, watching the way his eyes danced when he looked at me, the way he stared at me as if I was the most incredible person he'd ever encountered in his life.

"Better," I told him, grasping the back of his neck and pulling him down to kiss him again. I felt him smile against my lips, but then he was kissing me properly, his hands holding onto my hips as he held me to him and his hands were warm, even through my spy gear, his fingertips overlapping across the small of my back. I wrapped my arms around his neck and almost laughed when he tilted his head to kiss me better, his nose pressing into my cheek. I realised that it had been a long time since I'd kissed anyone - I'd stopped dating practically every guy I met when Dan started distancing himself from me. I'd though that it had something to do with him being disappointed with me - I'd always valued his approval much more than I valued ny father's - but I didn't find out until much later than Dan's distancing was a result of his recruitment to MI9, and not something to do with my dating habits. I hadn't picked them back up when I ransacked his room, because one, I found that I had matured and couldn't bring myself to do it, and two, I was kind of kiddnapped by his girlfriend's physco doppelganger.

I kissed him harder, feeling hs hands tighten on my hips as I fisted my hands in the collar of his jacket, the leather smooth against my skin. I was practically sitting in his lap and I felt warm all over, the heat from his hands, although he was the perfect gentleman and they never strayed any higher or lower than my hips, seemed to radiate across my whole body. Although I preferred the cold to the heat, I found that I liked the sensation, like the way his hands made me feel.

When Ains drew back, opening his eyes to look at me, I grinned. Ains rested his forehead against mine and brushed my hair out of my eyes and I shivered, feeling his breath waft across my face.

"What?" Ains asked, clearly wondering if there was some joke he was missing. I looked up and saw that his eyes were dancing once more - I decided that I liked him like this, happy and carefree and so . . . Teenage.

"Nothing. It's alright. I'm just terrible. I was terrible just then."

Ains laughed, his hand brushing across my jaw. "God, you're hilarious, Care. If that was your worst kiss, I can't wait to see what your best is."

I stared up at him as he said huskily, "_That_ was defintiely not terrible."

"That day in the park was the first time I'd kissed anyone in over a year." I told him. I didn't know why it mattered that I could do better than what I'd just done; maybe it was because he'd become such a large, constant part of my life and I didn'd want to lose him. I didn't know. I just knew it was important that he knew that.

Ains was staring at me, his lips parted. His hands were back on my waist, his thumbs tracing circles across my jacket and I could feel through my shirt and jacket; it kept sending volts of electricity up my spine and as good as it felt, I kind of wished he'd stop - it was really distracting.

Ains finally swallowed, draggng his tongue across his bottom lip. "Like I said; if that's your worst, I can't wait to see what your best is."

I smiled up at him, ducking my head to rest against his collarbone. I was sure that he would be the only to see whatever my best is - he always seemed to bring out the best in me.


	24. Chapter 24

**Caroline**

Ains walked me home from school that day.

We didn't speak, but I found that unlike the time I found myself stuck in a room with Zoe when she and Dan had first started dating, there was nothing awkward about it. His palm was warm against my own, and my bag was slung across one shoulder. In just today alone, I was starting to see that he was the kind of guy you only ever met in movies - the kind who held doors open, who was thoughtful, who remembered to be a gentleman - all the chivalrous qualities that most of the douches I'd dated hadn't bothered with past the first date.

Some distant part of my mind, the part that made me doubt anything that made me feel happy, asked me how he knew this stuff, whether his parents hadn't actually died, that maybe he'd run away from them for some reason. He had seemed to be very at ease with the idea of being an orphan, after all.

I told it to shut up. I didn't want to listen to logic. I wanted to be a normal teenage girl for five minutes, having my new boyfriend walk me home.

When Ains and I had finally stepped out of HQ, Vanessa and Camden had had these ridiculous smirks on their faces. I'd wanted to kick Camden where it hurt, just to wipe that grin of his face, but then Ains turned to Vanessa and said, "That was the whole point of that ridiculous game, wasn't it? To get me and Care together?"

Camden and Vanessa had shared an amused glance before Vanessa turned back to Ains. "Why else would you play Truth or Dare?"

"You're a little minx, you know that?" Ains had said, but he'd wrapped his arms around me and kissed my head. "I'm glad you did it, though."

"We thought you would be." Camden had said, grinning, and as Ains had held me in his arms, I'd found myself realising that even though I had joined MI9 to regain the closeness I'd once had with Dan, I'd somehow found myself an illegitimate brother and sister, people who loved just like Dan did, and I found that I trusted just as much as I trusted Dan - I loved them just as much as I loved him and I wanted nothing but the best for them.

I found myself wishing that my house was situated further from St Hope's as Ains and I stopped, and I turned to face him.

"Your brother's probably going to kill me for this," Ains said. I was about to ask what he meant, but then he moved forward, taking my face in his hands and kissing me. This was nothing like our kiss in HQ - it was hard and fast and over before I could really enjoy it. He slowly drew back and the first thing I saw was his brown eyes, searching mine carefully. I smiled, placing my hand on his shoulder and swinging my bag off of it and onto my own. Before he could turn and walk off, I pushed up on the tips of my toes, pressing my mouth against his. I made sure this kiss was slow, sliding my hand around the back of his neck as I shuffled closer to him, wishing I could just stay like this forever.

A series of knocks, coming from my front door, made Ains freeze, but I knew full well what the sound was - it was Dan, knocking moarse code against the front door with his knuckles.

Get inside, now, before I have to come out there.

I internally groaned as Ains pulled away, resting his forehead against mine. We stayed like that until Dan knocked against the door again, and Ains sighed, pulling back to look down at me. "I should probably go."

I nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Ains nodded, giving me a small smile before he turned to walk back the way we'd come. I bit my lip, smiling, as I watched his retreating back, before I walked into the house, finding Dan leaning casually against the wall.

"Are you serious?" I asked. "You are a piece of work, Daniel Morgan, and I - "

I broke off as he swept me into a hug, his arms crushing my arms so tightly that I had to wriggle and shift so that I coud breathe.

"I'm happy for you, Caroline," Dan said as he set me down. I looked up at him, trying to find any form of sarcasm, but he looked one hundred percent sincere.

Then he turned, pounding up the stairs, singing, "Caroline's got a boyfriend!"

"Dan!" I cried, running after him and jumping on his back. Dan stopped yelling about my love life, his arms twisting to grasp my legs so that I wouldn't fall down the stairs. I put my hands over his eyes and he thrashed his head back and forth, trying to get his head free. We were both laughing and it felt like before - before complicated things like national affairs and clone ex-girlfriends came into play, when he wasn't Agent Morgan, and neither was I, when he was just my twin brother, when he was just a carefree boy with big blue eyes who liked to laugh and have fun, when he was nothing more than my best friend.

But all good things have to come to an end.

"Caroline!" Dad called from downstairs.

I slid off Dan's back and glanced at him worriedly. Dan kissed my forehead lightly, his hand on my shoulder as he said quietly, "Remember what I said, Care."

"About what?" I joked half-heartedly. "You say a lot of things. It doesn't necessarily mean I listen."

Dan wasn't laughing. "Remember what I said about if he ever hurt you, Care."

I set my mouth into a hard line. "He won't get that far. I won't let him."

"You'd be surprised." Dan told me, and there was something sad in his eyes, as if there was some secret about our father that he knew and I didn't. I convinced myself that it had sonething to do with Zoe, and then turned and walked down the stairs.


	25. Chapter 25

"What's up?" I asked, walking into the living room, leaning against the door frame as casually as I could muster. This was the first time I'd been in the same room as my father since the night I first kissed Ains, since the night Dad hit Dan, and I blinked against the memory of Dad striking my brother, using my training to help me keep my expression neutral.

"What are you - " Dad broke off, his eyes narrowing. I realised that the corner of the bandage on my neck was visible on the side of my neck and my hand flew up to cover it, but it was too late. Dad had already seen it. I felt nerves settle in, like bats nesting in my stomach, but I calmed when I saw Dan in the kitchen, his posture tense, as if he was readying himself for a fight.

"What is that?" Dad asked, making his way towards me.

Make up a lie. I could do it, and it would be easy; to tell him something that was competely untrue, but I was such a talented liar that I knew he'd believe it. But I couldn't do it - Dad had been avoiding me for no reason and I was angry with him and with Dan, a little bit, and my snarky sarcastic defense system kicked in, made worse by nerves and confusion and the sudden shock from being brought down so quickly from the high that being with Ains had provided.

"Well, you'd know if you were a real father and actually _cared_," I told him.

I didn't even see it happen. But I felt it.

Suddenly my cheek was stinging, and the force of the blow was such a shock that I fell, hitting my head on the edge of the coffee table. My vision was blurred and my head was pounding, but I managed to turn my head, peering through the blurred shapes to recognise Dan charge in and punch Dad in the face. I blinked, and suddenly Dan was there, his hands gripping the tops of my arms and hauling me to my feet. Before I even had te chance to register what was happening, Dan had hauled me out onto the street and was practically draghing me down the sidewalk.

"Dan, stop," I said, wrigglung my arm to free it from his arm, a tight vise around my arm, just below my shoulder. "You're hurting me."

"Sorry," Dan muttered, letting go of my arm, letting his arms fall to his sides. I struggled to catch up with him, practicall jogging to match his longer paces with my own shorter ones. My head pounded with ever step, but ignored it - I had bigger things to worry about than a mnor headache.

"Dan, where are we going?" I asked.

Dan turned to look at me, but he continued walking. "Do you know where your boyfriend's hosue is?"

I nodded. "Why?"

"I'm going to take you to him. Chances are, he's probably going to be the best thing for you right now. Which way?"

"Keep walking. I'll let you know when we need to turn."

When I followed Dan up onto Ains and Vanessa's porch, I noticed that Dan looked tense.

"Dan, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm . . . I'm fine," Dan said, sounding anything but fine. I started a comtradict him, but then the door swung open, revealing Ains, dressed in a dark blue t-shirt and jeans. He had a grin playing on his mouth as he said, "Really couldn't keep away, could - "

He broke off when I raised my gaze to meet his, his eyes going wide as my hair fell back from my face so that he could see the full extent of my injuries. As that grin dropped from his mouth and he started towards me, I wondered what I looked like to him. However I looked, I was sure that I didn't look as strong as he seemed to think I was.

I stared back at him as he took my chin in his hands and assessed my injuries. Finally, his own posture stiff with barely contained fury, he turned to Dan.

"What," he said, "the hell happened?"

"Our father." Dan replied.

"I'll kill him," Ains muttered, moving to brush past Dan, but Dan shoved him back towards the house. Ains glared at Dan, and suddenly I wondered that if a fight broke out between my brother and my boyfriend, which of the two would win.

Ains looked ready to throw a punch, but then Dan stepped back, his eyes wary. "You have no idea how much I want to let you go right now - the bastard deserves it. But Care deserves to be taken care of more than he deserves to have the crap beaten out of him."

Ains looked over at me, his fury fading into a worried expression that I didn't like. I didn't like worrying people.

"What happened to her?" Ains asked, looking from me to Dan.

"He punched her and as she fell, she hit her head. I don't whether she has a conscussion or not."

Suddenly Ains was in front of me again, his fingertips feather-light against my throbbing right temple. Pain flared outwards from the spot he touched, hot and burning against my skull, and I winced, moving my head away.

"Could be," Ains muttered. "But as a general rule, head wounds bleed a lot."

"It hurts," I whimpered, although I wasn't necessarily talking about my head. Ains gave me a small, sympathetic smile, brushing my hair back from my face. "I'll nick some clothes from Ness for you to wear. Then we'll get you cleaned up."

I nodded and I wished that Dan could read minds; then, he'd know how grateful I was that he'd brought me here, so that I could be among friends. I somehow knew that I was going to need them over the coming weeks, even though I had no way of knowing what the future held.


	26. Chapter 26

Ains' room wasn't what I expected.

I expected something ridiculously clean, everything perfectly tidy, not a thing out of place.

Instead, I found a room that spoke to me of Ains, the secretly vulnerable orphan who felt everything much more deeply than he allowed anyone to know.

I took a deep breath and looked up as Ains entered, carrying a bowl of water. He knelt down in front of me, his gaze flickering quickly across my outfit - a borrowed pair of tight black pants and red shirt of Vanessa's - before he moved to start cleaning me up. I reluctantly let him - I hated people fussing over me, especially now that was an agent, when I was supposed to be strong.

It appeared that my face had suffered most of the damage, although I had cut my hand at some point. I didn't know how - I didn't even remember doing it.

"You don't have to be strong all the time, Care." Ains said gently. "You can be vulnerable now and then."

"No, I can't." I said.

Ains stopped and looked up at me curiously, rocking back on his heels. "You have some odd ideas about strength, Caroline Morgan."

"I know that strength isn't hitting your own children." I said, just to show him that I wasn't some helpless and broken abused child. I reached forward and took the cloth from his hands, pressing it against my temple. Pain ricocheted across my skull, but I gritted my teeth and pressed it more firmly against it.

"Do you ever intent to let anyone look after you?" Ains asked, his dark brown eyes staring at the side of my face. I took a deep breath and lowered my hand, looking down at the white-turned-pink-by-my-blood material of the cloth. Ains reached out, brushing his thumb across the back of my hand. I felt tears welling up behind my eyes and I closed my eyes, pressing my lips together to keep a sob from escaping.

"Hey," Ains said quietly, dropping onto the bed beside me. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, drawing me into his side. I placed my head on his shoulder and he took the cloth from me, and I let him, burying my face in his shoulder. He rested his head against mine, his fingers intertwining with my own.

"You know," he said quietly, his thumb tracing slow, smooth circles against the back of my hand, "you don't have to be indestructible all the time, Care. You're allowed to cry."

I shook my head against his shoulder. "I can't."

"Why not?" he breathed into my hair.

I pulled away from his side, drawing my legs up beneath me and rubbing unshed tears out of my eyes. I refused to look at him as I said quietly, "My dad hit me. He hit Dan. I don't want to cry because I'm afraid that if I start, I won't be able to stop."

I made myself look at him and he reached across, brushing my hair out of my face and tucking it behind my ear. He sighed, his fingers sliding across my jaw as he let his hand drop into my lap. "You . . . You will find a way to stop, Caroline. I know you will."

I laughed bitterly, shaking my head. "I don't cry when I should. I cry when I have to."

Ains smiled. "You'd get along well with my foster sister, then."

"What, Vanessa?" I asked, confused.

Ains smiled, shaking his head. "No. I have another one. She doesn't live here – she's kind of gone off the grid."

"Off the grid?" I questioned.

"Family stuff," Ains said dismissively.

I nodded and picked at the edge of the blanket nervously. Nothing hurt – not really – but I knew that the events of tonight were going to come back and bite me on the arse at some point. I felt long, gentle fingers grasp my chin, pulling gently. I reluctantly lifted my eyes to his, watching as his eyes flickered back and forth across my face.

"Do you – " he started.

"No," I said, leaning back against the bedhead. "I don't want to talk about my dad. I don't want to talk about how messed up my family is."

"Count yourself lucky that you have a family," Ains said quietly.

I sucked in a quick breath. "I didn't mean – "

He smiled at me. "I know you didn't."

I pulled my knees up into my chest, wrapping my arms around them. "I just need to wrap my head around it, before I can talk about it."

He nodded. "Fair enough." He looked at me, his brown eyes holding some emotion that I was a little too tired to bother to decipher. "What _do _you want to talk about, then?"

I smiled mischievously, ducking my head forward so that my chin rested on my knees. "Maybe I don't want to talk about anything."

At times, Ains could be naïve, and at time he could be so utterly mature that it amazed me. But he was not ignorant, and he definitely wasn't stupid. He knew how to take a hint. He proved that then, by leaning forward and pressing his mouth against mine, his hand coming up to rest on my cheek. I kissed him back roughly, running my hands up his arms to wind around his neck. I felt his arm sliding around my waist to pull me closer, his fingertips finding the skin hidden underneath my shirt and jumper, sending shivers up my spine.

"You know, if you're going to defile my sister, I'd prefer that you did it with the door closed."

Ains abruptly pulled away, twisting his head away from me. I peered over his shoulder to find Dan leaning against the doorframe, his phone in his hand.

"You a dick, you know that?" I told him, narrowing my eyes.

"I have been informed of that on multiple occasions, Care." Dan said, grinning. Then his expression sobered and he asked, "Can I talk to my sister alone, Ains?"

Ains hesitated, but he pressed a kiss to my forehead and left the room. I wrapped my arms around myself, well aware that my brother had just walked in on me kissing my boyfriend, and that I was wearing Ains' jumper that I'd nicked from the back of his desk chair. My discomfort faded away when I noticed the circles under Dan's eyes, the way his shoulders slumped, as if simply being in this house tired him.

"Are you alright?" I asked, crossing my legs.

Dan waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, I – I'm fine. I don't need you to console me."

"Something _is _wrong, though." I insisted.

Dan stared at me. "MI9's turned you into a little mind reader, hasn't it?"

"Hardly," I told him. "Quit dodging my questions. Tell me what's happened?"

Dan took a deep breath, shoving his phone into the pocket of his jeans as he looked away. "I just had a call from Mum."

"And?"

"_And _she and Dad are getting a divorce."


	27. Chapter 27

I stared at my brother, trying to find some tell-tale sign that Dan was lying. I couldn't find any; and Dan was someone that I could read like a book.

I sighed, looking away. "I figured it would come to this."

I heard Dan sigh. "I wish it didn't, Care. You have no idea how much I wish our family was normal."

I laughed bitterly, dipping my head back. "Normal? We're spies, Dan. _Nothing _about our family will ever be normal. Look at our track record."

"Track record?" Dan questioned, his brow creasing.

"Of us. You're in love with the clone of the leader of a criminal organisation, Dan. We're _teenage _spies, for God's sake. We say that we want normal, but you and I both know that's not true."

Dan smiled. "When did you get so insightful?"

"I grew up." I told him. Dan laughed, but he still looked tired.

"There's something else." I said. "What is it, Dan?"

"Just leave it, Care. I'm fine." Dan said.

"You're not." I insisted. "Dan, what's going on?"

Dan sighed, looking away. "Fine. You know this 'foster sister' that your boyfriend was just talking about?"

"He has a name." I said, but I nodded.

"Well, that foster sister is Zoe." Dan said quietly, refusing to meet my eyes.

I stared at him. "Are you serious?"

"Deadly," Dan told me, sitting down.

"Oh, my God." I said, wrapping my arms around myself. I knew I should probably find something comforting to say, but I couldn't think of anything that would be worth the energy. I realised, now that I knew, that Ains' unique fighting style came from what he'd been taught by MI9, what he'd taught himself, and what Zoe had obviously taught him.

"Are you alright?" I asked him finally.

"I'll be fine, Care," Dan said, and walked out. I sighed – it wasn't exactly the answer I'd wanted. In fact, it was very far from the answer that I'd wanted. I sat back against the headboard as Ains walked in, his footsteps slow and cautious. I lifted my eyes to his, watching as he slowly moved towards me.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked quietly. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I should be angry with him, but I couldn't bring myself to – I was too tired to bother to muster up the energy to form emotions.

"It wasn't my place," Ains replied.

"Of course it wasn't," I muttered, closing my eyes and letting my head fall back to rest against the headboard. When I opened them again, Ains was standing beside the bed, his brown eyes watching me. I stared up at him for a few moments before he broke his gaze, glancing down at my hand before his eyes flitted back up to my face.

"You should get some sleep, Care." He said quietly, reaching out and tucking my hair behind my ear. I offered him a weak smile as his palm rested against my cheek, his skin cool against mine. I stared at him for a moment before I reluctantly pulled the covers back and slipped beneath them, pulling them up to cover my body. As I rested my head on the pillow, I glanced across at Ains, watching as his deep brown eyes regarded me carefully. "Sweet dreams, Caroline Morgan."

I smiled, closing my eyes. The smell of him clung to the sheets, the sweet mixture of soap and guy's deodorant. I let it slowly lull me to sleep, curling my arms around myself as I let the darkness and temporary oblivion that sleep provided overcome me.

I didn't have sweet dreams.

I woke up screaming.

It was thanks to Ains that I woke up at all – even through my dream, I felt someone shaking me, someone calling my name, and it somehow pulled me out of the nightmarish scenario that I couldn't remember as soon as I woke up.

Gasping, I stared at Ains, his brown eyes worried, studying the way the light from the bedside lamp cast strange shadows across the planes of his faces, making all the angles look sharper, making him look older than his sixteen years.

He touched my face carefully, wiping the pad of his thumb across the skin underneath my eye, and I realised that my cheeks were wet with emotion. I laughed hollowly, dropping my head into my hands and wiping the tears away with the heels of my hands. When I made myself raise my head again, Ains was watching me, his eyes flickering across my face, as if he could tell what I was thinking if he stared at me for long enough.

"Mind reading's not a thing, you know," I told him weakly, turning to sarcasm as my defence against my emotions, even in moments like these. I watched the corner of Ains' twitch upwards and I looked away, looking over his shoulder at the blankets on the floor. Astounded, I turned to him, gaping. "You slept on the floor?"

He smiled, lifting one shoulder in a half-shrug. "Trust me, it's more comfortable than the couch."

"I doubt that," I told him, smiling, but I let it drop when I caught his eye – and knew that he was aware that I was just smiling so that I would seem tougher than I really was.

"Move over," He said quietly.

"What are you doing?" I asked, but I obeyed, watching as he slipped under the covers with me. I shivered as his slightly warmer feet connected with my skin, and he chuckled quietly as he said, "I'd rather kill chivalry than let my girlfriend suffer from nightmares all night."

I flushed and looked down, wringing my hands together nervously as butterflies started dancing in my stomach. It was going to take me a while to get used to him calling me his girlfriend, it seemed. I couldn't put my finger on it, but there was something about him that I liked, something about him that I couldn't quite work out, something that ran deeper than simply how attractive he was and how good he smelt in comparison to the other guys I knew, who all bathed themselves in an aura of cologne so thick that you could practically smell it from a kilometre away.

I probably could have spent the rest of the night pondering that, pondering what it was about him, about this orphaned boy who hardly ever got angry, but in the few times it had seen that emotion on him, it was enough to terrify me, as if there was a monster inside of him that he kept chained, that I liked so much, but instead I lied back, resting my head against Ains' collarbone, and let myself fall asleep.


	28. Chapter 28

**Caroline**

When I woke up, I was lying on my side, my nose pressed into the side of Ains' throat. I could feel his hand against my waist and when I cracked my eyes open a slit, he murmured, "Good morning, Caroline."

I sighed softly in contentment, resting my head against his shoulder and tilting my head so I could see his face. His eyes seemed to dance as he looked at me, pressing a kiss to the point where my hair met my head before he detangled himself from me and pulled himself up into sitting position, pulling me with him. I squeaked softly in surprise as he pulled me so that I was sitting between his legs, dropping his head onto my shoulder. I smiled and turned to face him, watching as his dark eyes flickered across my face, trying to read my expression. I noticed that his eyes looked so dark that his irises were practically undistinguishable from his pupils and I felt myself smile a little wider, pulling him down to me and kissing him. He seemed slightly surprised – his mouth opened slightly against mine, but then I felt his hands sliding across my hips and I could feel the warmth of his hands even through his jumper, which I was still wearing. I clenched my fists around the collar of his shirt, drawing him as close as I could get him as his mouth broke away from mine, placing a trail of kisses across my jaw and neck. I slid one hand across the back of his neck to grasp his shoulder, all too aware that my breath was coming in short, quick gasps and that I probably liked the feel of his lips against my skin a little too much.

Ains abruptly pulled his head up as I squeezed his shoulder, and I looked up into his face, noticing immediately that it was definitely impossible for me to distinguish his pupils from his irises, and that his eye colour had darkened so much that I could see my reflection in them.

"You want to stop," Ains said. It wasn't a question.

"We're in a bed," I pointed out. "It would probably be smart to, before we do something neither of us are ready to do."

I wondered if he might push me, and I realised that this would be the ultimate test of his character – to see if he really was someone I wanted to be with.

As I watched, he nodded and detangled himself from me, getting off the bed and stretching. I stared at his back in astonishment, watching the way the muscles in his shoulder blades moved and contracted underneath his shirt. Then, I shook my head and climbed out of the bed, pushing my tangled blonde hair out my face. I made a mental note to ask Vanessa if I could borrow a brush from her later – my hair always looked like a birds' nest whenever I woke up.

* * *

As Ains and I sat at the counter with Vanessa and their foster mother, Janette, I wondered where Dan was. I hadn't seen him yet and I had a feeling he was in Zoe's room, but I couldn't bring myself to go up there; I didn't know if I'd be able to handle whatever it was that I would find.

When I was about halfway through my bowl of cereal, Dan appeared, looking tired and drawn as he sat on the opposite side of the counter to me. He yawned tiredly and leaned his head against his cheek, his eyes cast downward. I smiled sadly and reached across the counter, wrapping my fingers around Dan's and squeezing. Dan started, his blue eyes flickering up to meet mine in surprise. I squeezed his hand tighter and he squeezed back feebly, as if he didn't have it in him to squeeze back any harder than that.

"Are you alright?" I asked quietly. I could feel Ains' eyes on the side of my face, and Vanessa glancing quickly between Dan and I, and Janette watching Dan with sad brown eyes, but I ignored them.

"I'll be fine," Dan said quietly, releasing my hand. "I will."

"I didn't ask if you were _going _to be fine." I said. "I asked if you are."

"I'm okay," Dan said weakly. He didn't sound okay, but I didn't push him. I removed my hand and sat back in my chair, staring down at my half-eaten bowl of cereal. I desperately wanted to say something to him to lift his mood even a little in relation to us staying here, but I couldn't think of anything – I knew nothing about heartbreak, so the best I could come up with was; "We don't have to stay here. We could go home, if you want, Dan."

That only really succeeded in making things worse.

Dan suddenly reanimated, looking at me as if I was crazy.. "No, no, no. A hundred, billion, thousand times, _hell. No, _Caroline. As long as he still lives in that house, you are not stepping foot in it."

"But – "

"No. End of conversation." Dan said sharply. He glanced towards Ains, who was sitting at my side and had been watching the exchange with a tense expression. "If you try, I'll have your boyfriend here strap you down if you even try."

I gaped at him. "I was under the influence of a chip manufactured by KORPS! That's the only reason they strapped me down! That barbaric!"

Dan shrugged. "So? Why should that matter to me?"

Vanessa clearly found this hilarious and she covered her mouth with her hand when I gave her a sharp look, letting her know that she should probably shut up as Ains muttered, "It matters to me."

Dan heard. "Well, I'm her twin. You're her boyfriend whom she's been with for less than twenty-four hours. My opinion kind of take priority."

Ains grunted and I took his hand, threading my fingers through the gaps in his own as I whispered, "It matters to me," to which he turned his head and gave me a small smile of gratitude as Vanessa remarked, "Well, apparently they've been dating long enough to warrant bed-sharing."

"Wait, what?" Dan asked, staring at me with wide eyes.

I rolled my eyes and groaned. "We didn't _do _anything!"

"Sure," Vanessa said, smirking. "We believe you."

I rolled my eyes again. "You and Camden are going to have a field day with this, aren't you?"

"You bet," Vanessa said, grinning.


	29. Chapter 29

**I'm sorry this took so long – I had my school camp last week, so I was a little busy, but I'm back now! So here's an update for you, and I'll be back to my normal update schedule now – two or three updates a week. Enjoy!**

**Caroline**

Sometime after I'd finished my breakfast and changed into another outfit of borrowed clothes from Vanessa – this time a pair of black-and-white printed leggings and a dark blue shirt that was longer at the back than the front, paired with a borrowed pair of black boots – I found myself in Zoe's room, looking through the meagre possessions she'd left behind. Even though I'd never set foot in this room before, I somehow knew that this was most of her stuff – she hadn't taken very much with her when she left. This was the room of Zoe London, a girl who was just discovering herself while falling in love with her best friend.

On one wall, there was an array of photos pinned to the wall. Apparently there used to be more there than there was now – some of the pins weren't holding any photos up, they were sitting there, stabbed into the wall, with a little bit of a photo caught between the wall and the pinhead. There was about five photos left – all of a smiling, redheaded girl and a younger, happier Dan. One photo in particular made me smile – Dan and Zoe were standing side by side at the beach and Dan had his arm around Zoe's waist, and their temples were pressed together. I'd always thought they looked good together, those two, and that opinion hadn't changed, even now.

"Care?"

I didn't look up – I knew that it was Ains standing in the doorway. From just the voice, I could tell that it wasn't Vanessa or Janette; the voice was much too deep. And I could tell that it wasn't Dan from the figure I could see in my peripheral vision; they were too tall, the hair much too dark to have been my brother.

I sighed, still looking at the photos of Dan and Zoe. "She really did love him, didn't she?"

"Yeah, she did. Enough to give him her only piece of jewellery, anyway," Ains said, moving to stand beside me. "She still does."

I glanced at him, my brow furrowed. "She does? How do you know?"

"I can hear it, whenever she calls. She's always asking me to ask you how Dan is."

I frowned and looked up at him. "Well, how come you've never asked me?"

His mouth twisted into a smile. "Because I always tell her to grow up, swallow her pride and call Dan."

"And she does it?"

"Every time." He replied, grinning. "I think she's a little afraid that if she doesn't, I'm going to track her down and haul her arse back home."

"Do you ever consider doing it?" I asked.

"A few times, I've considered doing it. Do you?"

I sighed and looked back at the photos of Dan and Zoe, of the happy, carefree boy that my brother used to be, instead of the hard young man that he's been replaced with. "Every single time I look at my brother, I wish she'd just end all this and come back and I'm tempted to track her down and bring her back, just so he would start smiling again."

I saw him smile from the corner of my eye, saw him reach up and knead the back of my neck quickly with two fingers before he let his hand drop, trailing down my arm. "You know, I wish I had a sister like you."

I smiled and turning to him, pushing up on the tips of my toes and pressing my mouth against his quickly before I drew away. He looked puzzled for a moment until I said, "You'd never be able to do that with your sister."

Ains laughed. "Definitely not."

I turned to back to the photos, feeling my smile fading. "I don't know if I'd ever be able to do what she's done."

"She had her reasons," Ains said, reaching out and tracing patterns that I couldn't see across the back of my hand.

"She just went to find her sisters, didn't she?" I asked, but Ains looked away.

"Didn't she?" I asked, my voice harder this time. I stared at him. "There's more to it. There's more to her leaving than just wanting to find her sisters, isn't there?"

Ains looked away. "It's not my place to tell you, Care."

"To hell it's not," I said. "He's my _brother, _Ains. Is there more to it?"

Ains looked away and I grasped his chin, looking him in the eye. "Is there?"

Ains sighed. "Damn you, woman."

I clenched my jaw. "Are you going to tell me now?"

He sighed softly and leaned against the computer desk. "Zoe was threatened that if she didn't leave, the people she loved would be caught in the crossfire between KORPS and MI9. Everyone she loved would die and she would be made to watch their deaths."

"KORPS?" I asked quietly, glancing towards the door to make sure Dan wasn't listening.

Ains nodded. "She chose the lesser of two evils – she would much rather that Dan be in pain than for him to be dead because of her." He glanced towards the door. "That's why you can't tell him, Care – if he knows, he'll go after her. He'll be convinced that he can hold his own, when he _can't_, not against the forces that they have."

"How do you know that?" I asked. "He might just accept it."

Ains scoffed. "Accept it? Care, he's your twin brother. If you two are alike in any way, he'll do _anything_ but merely accept it."

"Fair point." I said grudgingly, to which he smiled.

"I rest my case," Ains said, starting towards me and taking my arm to lead me out of the room.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"It's a surprise," he said.

"I hate surprises." I told him.

Ains sighed softly through his teeth. "Just wait, Care. There's something I want to show you."

I was tempted to argue with him, but I reluctantly allowed him to lead me out of the house and down the street.


	30. Chapter 30

**Caroline**

Of all the places to take me, he ended up taking me on a ridiculously long walk to this hill, right at the edge of the city. By the time we got there, my feet hurt from all that walking and I wouldn't have minded if he just carried me back. Shirtless, preferably.

My train of thought must've shown as a flush on my face, because Ains turned to face me, his brow creased. "What?"

Smiling sheepishly, I shook my head. "Nothing. Don't worry about it."

Ains stared at me for a moment longer before he shrugged, dropping his tall body to the ground where he stood. I looked around and as I took in our surroundings, I realised where we were – he'd literally dragged me across the city, to the higher ground at the edge of town.

"And why," I said, sitting down beside him, "would you feel the need to drag me across town, just to show me the view?"

He shrugged. "I figured you'd like it. Do you?"

I nodded. "I do. Thank you."

He smiled down at me – even sitting down, he had a head of height on me. "I like to come out here when I need to think."

I smiled, shaking my head. "When I need to think, I normally just climb up onto our roof or I play the piano."

His head snapped around to look at me, his lips parting slightly in surprise. "You play?"

I nodded. "I haven't touched it since I was recruited – I just haven't had the time and energy to bother."

He took one of my hands in his, his thumb brushing across the back of my hand gently. MI9 had made my fingertips rough and calloused, but they were still the slightly out-of-proportion hands I'd always had. I had long, elegant fingers that I'd discovered were 'perfect pianist's hands' from a young age. I'd started taking lessons when I was nine and had immediately fallen in love with it.

"I bet you're amazing at it," Ains said quietly, looking at me.

I flushed, ducking my head. "I'm okay."

"Liar," Ains said, pressing a kiss to the side of my head. I bit back a smile, noticing his brow furrowing from the corner of my eye as he said, "Hang on. How do you manage to get on the _roof?"_

I laughed. "Our attic has a hatch in the ceiling and my dad has some boxes, like, literally right underneath it. " At the mention of my father, I felt my heart rate speed up and my breath hitch as the memory of his blow stung behind my closed eyelids, but I forced myself to keep talking. "If I stand on them, it's easy – I can just reach up and unlock and then pull myself up."

As I spoke, I forced myself to keep staring at the skyline, to keep the tears from breaking free of the cages I was keeping them in.

"Care."

I felt a hand being placed on my arm and I jumped, turning to see dark brown eyes, worried as they searched my face. I ducked my head and Ains pressed his forehead against mine, his hand brushing my hair out of my face tenderly. "Are you alright, Care? How are you dealing with . . . everything?"

I considered lying to him; telling him that I was fine, but I decided against it. I knew that he could see for a fact that I was anything but fine and if I told him that I was, it would do nothing but cause arguments between us. And the last thing I wanted to do was to create fights between us, so I said, "I'm dealing."

I knew immediately that it was far from the answer he'd been hoping for, but it was also far from the flat-out lie I'd been considering. Remembering what Dan had told me about letting people in, I took a deep breath and asked, "Did I tell you about my parents?"

He pulled back a little, his eyes searching mine. "What about them?"

I turned away from him, turning back towards the skyline. "That they're divorcing."

"Oh," Ains said, but he took my hand, threading his fingers through the gaps between mine. I rest my head on his shoulder and felt him press a kiss to my forehead and I wondered if there was any possible way that we could freeze this moment in time, because if we could, life would be a lot less complicated.

But we couldn't.

Eventually, reality came knocking, and Ains got up and helped me to my feet, his eyes searching for any signs of any possible lingering tears that had dried long ago. I gave him as convincing a smile as I could muster. I watched his mouth curl in response and then he ducked his head, his arms circling my waist and pulling me towards him as he kissed me. This kiss was nothing like the one back at the house, nothing like the one I used to get him to tell me about Zoe. This kiss was slow and lingering and soft, and it took my breath away in the best way possible, slowly drawing my breath from my lungs and leaving me completely breathless for a split second before his breath replaced my own. I ran my hands up his arms and wrapped them around his neck, pushing up on my toes to kiss him better.

I clenched my fists around the material of his jacket as we drew apart, dropping down so that I was standing properly, keeping my gaze fixed on his chest as I fought to find something else to focus on apart from the feeling of his hands resting on my hips. I could feel the heat of his skin through my shirt and I shivered, although it had nothing to do with the cold breeze that blew through my hair and ruffled his.


	31. Chapter 31

**Hey guys! Just quickly - I don't know whether any of you have checked out my bio lately, but if you have, you'll have seen that I took _Parallax _and _Free Hearts _off of my upcoming stories. This is what the deal is with that - before people start asking me about it - I've decided that I'm not going to do _Free Hearts _because I'm not particularly enthusiastic about it, and I know that someone else started something similar and I'm not particularly fond of doing a multi-chapter that is pretty much the same as someone else. As for _Parallax, _I've decided to convert that into an original story that I will post to my wattpad account (IWillBelieveIt) and I will let you guys know when it's up, if you want.**

* * *

**Dan**

Being in the house of your ex-girlfriend is possibly just as emotionally exhausting as watching her consciousness go back and forth between her own body and a computer.

I threw a worried glance up at the ceiling, fighting the urge to go back up to Zoe's room, to let myself drown in regret and sadness and just everything I'd been feeling since Zoe left.

"Are you alright? You look like you're going to be sick."

I looked up at the sound of the Australian accent – I'd only met Vanessa a handful of times and before I'd met her, the only time I'd ever heard an Australian accent was in movies, and I found that when Americans tried to imitate the Australian accent, they overdid it and made it much too thick. Although Vanessa's accent had been thick when I first met her, it seemed to be changing over time, merging with the British accents that she was bombarded with daily.

I blinked up at her, wondering whether there was something going on between her and Tom. When they'd been down in HQ, they'd kept eying each other off, but Vanessa would glance at Camden. "I'm fine. Just, uh . . . this house is messing with my head."

Vanessa smiled sympathetically, and I kind of hated her for it. I hated people looking at me like that, like I was a kicked puppy. "Why don't you go home then?"

"Care," I replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "If I go home, she'll follow me."

"No, she won't," Vanessa said quietly. "Ains won't let her."

I rolled my eyes. "_And _who knows what they'll do if I'm not in the same house as them?"

Vanessa shook her head, smiling. "They won't. Ains is . . . he's not like that. He's a teenage boy, but he's good at reading people. And he's not a dick. He won't force her into anything and he won't let her do anything she's not ready to do, even if she thinks she is."

I smiled. "You know, when I came home that day and you lot were sitting in the living room, I thought I recognised him, but I couldn't figure out _how_. It was only last night that I figured it out – because he's Zoe's foster brother, so of _course _I've seen him before."

Vanessa gave me a small, rueful smile. "I know you probably don't want to hear this, but you need to. She – "

Knowing where this was going, I shook my head and squeezed my eyes shut. "Vanessa, please. Don't."

Vanessa glared at me as if I'd offended her personally. Simply because it was instinct to glare right back at someone who glared at me, I narrowed my eyes and glowered at her. I realised that we were being ridiculous and I looked away, glaring at my split knuckles and running my fingers across it absently. "What's with you and Tom and that Camden guy?"

I knew it wasn't my place to be asking her this, but she'd just pissed me off and I needed a distraction and if she ended up punching me because of it, so be it.

She reacted exactly the way I expected her to.

"_Excuse me?"_

I rolled my eyes. "Come on. You've clearly got the hots for your other male teammate, yet you're eying off Tom like he's a meal. What's your game, Vanessa?" I'd meant it to come out like a simple question, but my anger towards my father was bubbling up again and fuelled by the fire of frustration of her mood swing, which girls seemed to be so ridiculously fond of, it came out as an accusation.

"You are a piece of work, Daniel Morgan," Vanessa hissed, her eyes flashing. "Has anyone ever told you that?"

"Many times," I replied, my voiced laced with malice as I leaned forward, although that was to cover my own hurt, because the only person who'd ever had the guts to tell me that was Zoe, and that was only when I was being a complete dick and I deserved it.

Suddenly I realised that I could see the thin flecks of hazel in her brown eyes, and suddenly it was the incident with Keri all over again, although this was different – I saw it coming, and it was a furious clashing of tongues and teeth and lips. I'd never kissed anyone simply because all my negative emotions had become too much for me to bear before and as exhilarating as it was, it was one of the most guilt-inducing things I'd ever done.

"What the hell?"

Abruptly, I shoved Vanessa away and turned, twisting my head and coming face to face with Caroline and Ains. Ains kept looking between us as if he couldn't really understand what was going on, but Caroline surprised me. I thought she'd be angry with me, or disappointed with me – her opinion seemed to be the only one I could actually bring myself to care about anymore – but instead she just looked at me sympathetically, as if she had any idea what I was going through. She had no idea.

"Ains," Caroline said quietly, glancing across at him. He suddenly burst into action, flinging himself over the couch and ushering Vanessa out of the room. I dropped my head into the back of the couch, burying my face in the softness as Caroline asked, "Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"You know what happened," I muttered darkly into the cushion.

"No, I know that you just kissed my best friend." I heard Caroline say. "I have no idea what transpired before that – although I can guess."

I looked up and glowered darkly at her, who looked completely unmoved by it. I realised that seemingly overnight, MI9 had hardened my sister, matured her, made her stronger. If I hadn't been drowning in guilt and self-loathing, I might've been able to find it within myself to be proud of her. "So what happened then, smartarse?"

"Vanessa mentioned Zoe, you got pissed off, you mentioned Camden and Tom, she got angry, cue short argument, cue immature hate-kiss." Caroline said, folding her arms over her chest. "This isn't like you, Dan."

"Yeah, well, heartbreak changes people." I muttered.

"You want to know what's really going on with her?"

"Not really," I muttered, dropping my head into the back of the couch.

"She went out with Tom once, he never showed any interest in going out again." Caroline replied. Confused, I raised my head to look at her. I couldn't remember Tom mentioning going out with Vanessa – his mind always seemed to be stuck on Aneisha. Maybe my own mind had stopped being able to see past anything but Zoe and Caroline.


	32. Chapter 32

**Caroline**

I left the living room and poked my head in through the kitchen door; Ains and Vanessa were gone, so I jogged up the stairs, first moving into Zoe's room. I found Dan's phone resting on the bedside table and I pocketed it before moving next door, standing in the doorway of Vanessa's room. She was lying face down on the bed, her face buried in her arm.

"Ness?" I asked.

"Go away, Care," Vanessa muttered. "I'm not in the mood for counselling."

I sighed. "_Now _will you stop being ridiculous and just admit that you like Camden?"

Vanessa abruptly turned, glowering at me, and I sighed. "Don't look at me like that. Just tell him. Because I know you were thinking about Camden while you were kissing my brother."

Vanessa looked down. "I wish I didn't do it. I think there's something wrong with me."

I laughed. "Nah, there's not. Dan was thinking about Zoe, for what it's worth."

"How do you know that?"

"I know my brother," I said. "And I know you. Just tell Camden, alright?"

I could feel her eyes staring after me as I turned and walked into Ains' room, where he was lying on his bed, his head resting back against the headboard as he played absently on his phone. He looked up as I walked in and sat on the end of his bed, his dark eyes following my every move as I pulled out Dan's phone. I quickly typed his unlock code, but it remained locked. As I typed it in a few more times, I could feel Ains' dark eyes watching me, until the phone locked me out for thirty seconds and I cursed under my breath.

"What?" I asked, looking up at Ains.

"What are you doing?" Ains asked, gesturing to the phone with a duck of his head.

"Trying to break into my brother's phone," I replied. I expected him to interrogate me about it, but instead he simply held his hand out. I placed the phone in his palm, watching as his fingers curled around it, and he fiddled with it for a moment before he pulled out his spy pod, nimble fingers working quickly.

Then, almost as quickly as he'd taken it, he'd placed it back in my palm and I was staring down at Dan's home screen wallpaper, a photo of him and Zoe, just before they started dating. "How do you do that?"

Ains smirked. "Wizardry."

I laughed, shaking my head and opening up Dan's contacts as Ains asked, "What are you doing, anyway?"

"Trying to see if I can guilt Zoe into coming back. If that doesn't work, I'll drag her." I replied.

"Caroline, no. I told you this morning, she left for a reason – "

"I know that. But what else am I supposed to do? He's not getting over her. I can't just let him suffer."

"You can't put his life at risk."

"He can look after himself."

Ains sighed heavily and before he could say anything, I said, "I can't stand to see him like this, Ains. Please. Just let me try."

He sighed again and I knew I'd won.

"Thank you," I murmured, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to his mouth, letting the phone roll out of my hands and onto the mattress. I felt him smile into the kiss, his hand cupping my cheek as I pushed myself closer to him, kissing him.

When we pulled away, he rested his forehead against mine, his eyes seeming to bore into mine as he opened his mouth to say something, but then closed his mouth, clearly thinking better of it. Then, he sat back and picked up the phone between us, offering it to me. "Take it, Care. Go for it. Get her back here. I was wrong to stop you."

"Thank you," I breathed, leaning forward and giving him one last chaste kiss on the mouth before I took the phone from him, twisting so that I was sitting with his chest pressed against my back. I took a deep breath and then dialled Zoe's number, pressing the phone to my ear as Ains' palm pressed against my hip and he dropped his head onto my shoulder. In other circumstances, his touch may have distracted me, but then, it did something strange to me – it cleared my head and gave me strength. Some part me questioned why that was, exactly – why I drew strength from him, but I pushed it away. I didn't want to have the whole 'am I falling in love' internal debate whilst I was on the phone to my brother's ex-girlfriend.

"_Dan?" _Zoe's voice asked suddenly. "_What the hell are you doing? Do you realise what – "_

"It's not Dan," I said, and I felt Ains smile against my shoulder. He was probably imagining Zoe's reaction.

"Caroline?" Zoe asked, her voice a few decibels higher than usual. "_What do I owe . . . Hang on. Why the _hell _are you using _Dan's _phone?"_

"I live on the edge," I replied flippantly.

"_Yes, because stealing Dan's phone is completely and utterly living on the edge," _Zoe replied with a laugh. When her laughter died down, she asked, "_Why are you calling me, Caroline? This isn't a social call – you and I have never really been that close."_

"You're right," I said. "This isn't a social call. I . . . I need to ask you a favour. For Dan."

When she spoke, Zoe sounded anxious, but she said, "_What can I do?"_

I took a deep breath, and I could practically hear her groan internally. "I need you to come back."

"_Caroline, I left for a reason."_

"Yeah, I know about that." I said, but it came out more bitter than I intended.

"_I left to find my – "_

"Yeah, I know that's bullshit." I said sharply, cutting her off.

"_What are you – "_

"You didn't leave because all of a sudden you wanted to go find your sisters," I hissed accusingly. "You left because you were threatened. By KORPS, of all people."

"_For the love of God, Caroline, - "_

"Don't talk to me like I'm a child. I'm the same age as your boyfriend, Zoe, so do not treat me like I'm a child."

"_Caroline, I can't – "_

Abruptly, Ains snatched the phone out of my hands and put it on loud speaker. "Hi, Zoe."

She sounded as equally confused to hear his voice as she had been to hear mine. "Ains?! _What the . . . Are you . . .?"_

"I'm not discussing my love life with you right now," Ains said. "Or Caroline's." He added, indirectly answering her question. "You're coming home, Zoe. Enough's enough."

"_You know – "_

"That there was a time for you to leave, Zoe. I genuinely believe that, I do. But you knew when you left that leaving would hurt Dan – you accepted that fact. But it's tearing him apart."

"_How is he_?" Zoe asked quietly.

"I tell you that you leaving is tearing him apart and you ask how he is. Your logic always has been interesting, Zoe." Ains said, rolling his eyes.

I suddenly remembered how furious Zoe would get after Melissa would be fawning over Dan and I said quickly, "Dan kissed Vanessa."

I wasn't entirely sure that Zoe even knew who Vanessa _was, _but it had the desired effect.

"_He did _what?!" Zoe yelled, and I hurriedly turned the sound down so that Dan wouldn't hear. Ex-girlfriend my arse.


End file.
